^ 


THE 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


THE 


Doctrine  of  the  Church 


A   HISTORICAL   MONOGRAPH. 


FULL  BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  THE  SUBJECT. 


BY 
JOHN  J.  McELHINNEY,  D.D., 

MILNOR    PROFESSOR    OF    SYSTEMATIC    DIVINITY    IN   THE   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY    OF    THE 
PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH    IN  THE    DIOCESE   OF   OHIO. 


'Exx^j^ma  Qi-ov  ^Cjvxo^^  otv'Ko^  xai  l8pai,co|ua  Tr^i  d'kr^Oiiai. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
CLAXTON,  REMSEN  &  HAFFELFINGER, 

819  AND  821  Market  Street. 
1871. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1871,  by 

JOHN  J.  McELHINNEY,  D.  D., 

in    the   Office    of  the    Librarian  of  Congress   at   Washington. 

STEREOTYPED  CY  J.  FAGAN  &  SON.  PRINTED  BY  MOORE  BROS. 


PREFACE 


T  T  T'HILE  controversial  treatises  on  the  Church,  of  every 
*  '  variety  of  merit  and  representing  every  shade  of 
opinion,  abound,  a  special  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Church  has  not,  hitherto,  it  is  believed,  appeared  in  any  lan- 
guage. In  attempting  to  supply  this  deficiency,  the  author 
has  recorded  facts  and  opinions  as  he  found  them,  without 
regard  to  their  bearing  upon  controverted  questions  of  our 
own  time.  Compiled  with  no  polemical  purpose,  the  pres- 
ent work  simply  aims  to  embrace,  in  a  single  volume  of 
moderate  size,  the  whole  body  of  authority,  patristic,  medi- 
aeval, Romanist,  and  Protestant  —  Lutheran,  Reformed,  and 
particularly  Anglican  —  touching  the  nature,  constitution,  and 
powers  of  the  Christian  Church. 

Partiality,  or  one-sidedness  of  quotation,  as  exemplified  in 
numerous  catense  and  counter-catenae  of  controversial  writers, 
is  a  well-known  standing  ground  of  complaint,  going  far  to 
render  the  argument  from  authority  practically  wortliless. 
Hence  the  compiler  esteems  it  especially  important  to  assure 
the  reader  that  the  following  record  contains  all  that  has 
come  to  the  writer's  knowledge,  after  prolonged  research, 
that  can  be  considered  necessary  to  a  correct  and  adequate 
view  of  opinions  respecting  the  nature  and  constitution  of 
the  Church,  which  are  regarded  as  authoritative  by  the  chief 
parties  to  the  inquiry. 


vi  PREFACE. 

Citations  in  the  direct  line  of  this  work  might,  indeed,  have 
been  made  on  all  sides  to  a  much  greater  extent ;  but,  as  the 
author  believes,  greater  fulness  of  quotation  would  in  no 
degree  alter  or  modify  the  conclusion  upon  any  one  of  the 
questions  involved,  to  which  the  reader  will  be  naturally  led 
from  what  is  here  submitted. 

Absolute  impartiality  is  indeed  scarcely  attainable  save  at 
the  cost  of  absolute  indifference,  and  the  writer  cannot  pre- 
tend to  be  indifferent  to  the  momentous  issues  involved  in  the 
controversy  which,  for  so  many  ages,  has  divided  the  Church 
on  the  great  question  of  the  constitution  of  the  body  of  Christ 
in  its  earthly  being.  He  confidently  trusts,  however,  that  the 
following  pages  will  be  found  to  give  evidence  throughout  of 
a  painstaking  endeavor  to  maintain  the  utmost  fairness  in  the 
exposition  of  so  multitudinous  a  body  of  diverse  opinions  and 
discordant  theories.  As  a  means  of  securing  to  his  record 
the  largest  attainable  measure  of  fidelity,  he  has  made  it  a 
point  to  report  the  opinions  of  individual  writers  in  their  own 
words.  The  translations  which  occupy  so  considerable  a  por- 
tion of  the  volume,  have  been  made,  for  much  the  greater  part, 
directly  from  the  originals  by  the  compiler  himself;  and  in 
every  instance  reference  to  the  original  is  so  given  as  to  render 
the  labor  of  verification  as  light  as  possible.  Of  the  few 
passages  which  involve  any  disputed  question  of  construction,  \ 
the  original  text  is  given  in  the  notes  subjoined  to  the  several 
chapters. 

The  copious  Bibliography  which  is  added  to  the  work 
as  an  Appendix  will  be  found,  it  is  hoped,  a  valuable  aid 
to  further  and  independent  investigation.  The  numerals  en- 
closed within  brackets  in  the  body  of  the  work  refer  to  cor- 
responding numbers  prefixed,  severally,  to  the  titles  of  books 
arranged,  with  occasional  exceptions,  in  chronological  order, 
in  the  Appendix. 


PREFACE.  VU 

*^*  The  inappropriateness  of  the  term  by  which  the  Fathers 
of  the  age  immediately  succeeding  that  of  the  Apostles  are 
usually  designated  is  now  generally  acknowledged,  and  at- 
tempts have  been  made  to  substitute  other  words  (sub-apos- 
tolic, ep-apostolic,  etc.)  in  correction  of  the  long-standing 
abuse.  The  author,  it  will  be  observed,  has  ventured  to  de- 
part from  general  usage  in  employing  the  term  post-apostolic, 
as  more  accurately  descriptive  than  any  other  yet  suggested. 

The  following  passage,  inadvertently  omitted  in  its  proper 
place,  is  to  be  added  to  the  quotation  from  Cyprian,  on  the 
Headship  of  the  Church  of  Ronu\  p.  54: 

In  another  letter,  written  shortly  after,  to  the  same  Cornelius, 
Cyprian  designates  the  Church  of  Rome  tlie  root  and  ivoinb  of 
the  Catholic  CJiurch,  (ecclesiae  catholicae  radicem  at  matricem,) 
declaring,  at  the  same  time,  that  the  maintenance  of  commu- 
nion with  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  itself  the  maintenance  alike 
of  the  unity  and  the  charity  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Nos  enim 
singulis  navigantibus,  ne  cum  scandalo  ullo  navigarent,  ratio- 
nem  reddentes  scimus,  nos  hortatos  eos  esse,  ut  ecclesiai 
catholicae  radicem  at  matricem  agnoscerent  ac  tenerent.  (As 
in  the  former  letter,  Cyprian  here  accounts  for  his  hesitation 
and  that  of  his  colleagues  in  acknowledging  the  legitimacy  of 
Cornelius's  ordination.)  Sed  quoniam  latius  fusa  est  nostra 
provincia,  etc.  —  "  But  since  our  province  is  wide-spread,  having 
Numidia  and  Mauritania  attached  to  it;  (and  fearing)  lest  a 
schism  made  in  the  city  (of  Rome)  should  confuse  the  minds 
of  the  absent  with  uncertain  reports,  we  decided — having  re- 
ceived through  the  bishops  a  true  account  of  the  matter,  and 
being  fully  persuaded  on  the  best  authority  of  the  lawfulness 
of  your  ordination,  every  scruple  being  thus  at  length  re- 
moved from  everyone's  mind — that  letters  (acknowledging 
your  ordination)  should  be  sent  to  you  by  all  (bishops)  wher- 
ever placed  in  the  whole  province.  This  has  accordingly  been 
done,  in  order  that  all  our  colleagues  might  firmly  stand  by 
you  and  maintain  communion  with  you,  that  is  to  say,  (main- 


VUl  PREFACE. 

tain)  the  unity  of  the  Catholic  Chuixh,  and  equally  also  its 
charity."  Ut  te  univcrsi  collcgae  nostri  et  communicationem 
tuam,  id  est  catholicae  ecclesiae  unitatem  pariter  at  caritatem 
probarent  firmiter  ac  tenerent.  {lip.  xliv.  3,  ed.  Migne ;  Gold- 
Jioru,  xlviii.)  The  references  in  the  text  to  the  Epistles  are  con- 
formed to  the  numbering  in  Migne's  edition.  The  following 
are  to  be  noted  as  exceptions  :  —  P.  52,  for  Ep.  Iv.  14,  read  Ep. 
liv.  14,  ed.  Migne,  (lix.  20,  edd.  GoldJiorn  and  Oxford;)  p.  53, 
for  Ep.  lii.,  read  Ep,  li.  8,  ed.  Migne ^  (Iv.  7,  edd.  Goldh.  and  Oxf.  ;) 
ibid.,  for  Ep.  Ixxv.,  {edd.  Goldh.  and  Oxf.,)  read  Ep.  Ixxiv.  17,  ed. 
Migrie ;  p.  56,  for  Ep.  Ixxiii.,  {Goldh.  and  Oxf.^  read  Ixxii.  11, 
Migne  ;  ib.,  for  Ep.  Ixx.,  {Goldh.  and  C^^r/".,)  read  Ixix.  i,  Migne  ; 
p.  382,  for  Ep,  Ixxvi.  6,  read  Ixix.  2,  ^^.  Migne,  (Ixx.  2,  Goldh. 
and  6^;r/) 


CONTENTS, 


DIVISIONS   OF  THE   HISTORY. 


pAr.R 


Four  Main  Periods  —  The  Patristic,  Papal,  Mediceval,  Reformed       .         •     17 


FIRST   PERIOD. 

FROM  CLEMENT  OF  ROME  TO  LEO  THE  GREAT. 

A.  D.   100-460. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Early  Patristic  Definitions  —  Clement  of  Rome  —  Definition  of  the  Church  — 
Unity  —  Ministry  —  Threefold  Order  —  Episcopacy  —  Ignatius  —  Defini- 
tion —  Theory  of  Unity  —  Ministiy  —  Three  Orders  —  Catholicity  of  the 
Church 19 

CHAPTER  11. 

Irenoeus  —  Definition  of  the  Church  —  Exclusiveness  —  Unity  —  Apostolicity 
—  Of  the  Church  of  Rome  —  TertuUian  —  Apostolicity  of  the  Church  — 
Succession  of  Doctrine  —  Of  the  Church  of  Rome  —  Agreement  with 
Irenx'us  —  The  Universal  Priesthood  —  Of  the  Bishop  of  Rome         .         .     30 

CHAPTER  III. 

Justin  Martyr  —  Unity  of  the  Church — Universal  Priesthood  —  Church  Of- 
ficers—  Order  of  Sunday  Service  —  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Definition  of 
the  Church  —  Exclusiveness  —  Unity  —  Origen  —  Definition  —  Oneness  — 
Apostolicity  —  Holiness  —  Recognitions  of  Clement  —  Episcopacy —  Apos- 
tolical Constitutions  —  The  Baptismal  Symbol 41 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Cyprian  —  Of  the  Exclusiveness  of  the  Church  —  Unity  of  the  Church  — 
Equality  in  the  Episcopate  —  Cyprianic  Theoiy  —  The  Petri  Cathedra  — 

ix 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The  Pre-eminence  of  the  Church  of  Rome  —  The  Primacy  of  Peter  —  The 
Powers  of  the  Church  —  The  Christian  Priesthood  —  The  Fundamental 
Defect  of  the  Cyprianic  Theory  —  The  Montanist  Theory  of  the  Church  — 
The  Novatianist  Theory,  in  conflict  with  the  Cyprianic — Triumph  of  the 
Cyprianic —  Firmilian  at  one  with  Cyprian  —  Apostolical  Constitutions  — 
Optatus  of  Milevis  in  Agreement  with  Cyprian  —  Lactantius — Notes         .     5*^ 

CHAPTER  V. 

Augustine  —  Of  the  Exclusiveness  of  the  Church  —  Unity  —  Holiness  — 
Donatistic  View  —  Catholic  View  —  Settled  by  Augustine  —  In  the  Church, 
not  Of  the  Church  —  Not  Two  Churches — Modification  of  the  Primitive 
'View — Augustinian  View  of  the  True  Church  not  Identical  with  the  Pro- 
testant Doctrine  of  the  Invisible  Church  —  Theory  of  Tichonius  —  "The 
Communion  of  Saints  "  first  inserted  in  the  African  Symbol  —  Lord  King's 
Explanation 63 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Statements  of  Jerome  in  regard  to  the  Origin  of  the  Episcopate  —  Bishops 
Successors  of  the  Apostles —  Other  Apostles  besides  "  the  Twelve  "-^Ori- 
gin of  the  Episcopate  —  Equality  of  Bishops  —  Original  Identity  of  Bishops 
and  Presbyters — Jerome  Interpreted  (a)  by  the  Advocates  of  Ministerial 
Parity;  (b)  by  the  Upholders  of  a  Threefold  Order  —  The  "  Testimony  " 
of  Eutychius  (A.  D.  933)  worthless  —  CEcumenical  Councils;  Authority  of ; 
Augustine's  Theory  —  Vincent  of  Lerins  —  Utility  of  Councils  —  Judgment 
of  Gregory  Nazianzen  —  Canons  and  Decrees  of  General  Councils     .         .     73 


SECOND    PERIOD. 

FROM  LEO  I.  TO  GREGORY  VII. 

A.  D,  460-1080. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Primacy  of  the  Church  of  Rome  early  asserted  —  Primacy  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rtjme  —  Supremacy  of  the  Roman  Pontiff",  first  asserted  by  Leo  I.  —  Law 
of  Valentinian  —  Canon  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  —  Repudiated  by 
Leo  —  Grounds  of  the  Claim  —  Peter's  Relation  to  Christ  —  Relation  to 
the  other  Apostles  —  Relation  of  the  Roman  Pontiff'  to  other  Bishops  — 
Relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State  — The  Papal  System  —  Gelasius  — 


CONTENTS.  Xi 

PAGE 

His  Advanced  Position  —  Gregory  the  Great  Repudiates  the  Title  of  Uni- 
versal Bishop  as  Profane  —  Isidore  of  Seville,  of  Ecclesiastical  Degrees     .     85 


THIRD    PERIOD. 

FROM  GREGORY  VII.  TO  THE  REFORMATION. 

A.  D.  I080-153O. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals  —  Object  of  the  Compilation — Sample  of 
their  Teaching  —  Gregory  VII.  —  Supremacy  of  the  Church  over  the  State 

—  Dictates  of  Gregory  —  Leading  Features  of  the  Papal  System  —  New 
Relation  of  the  Papacy  to  the  Church — Development  of  Papal  Power 
under  Innocent  HI. —  Pope  now  named  Vicar  of  Christ —  Less  than  God 

—  Greater  than  Man  —  The  Source  of  all  Law  —  Hugo  of  St.  Victor        .     98 

CHAPTER   IX. 

Papal  Infallibility  —  Statements  of  Leo  IX.  respecting  Indefectibility  of  Faith 
in  the  Papal  See;  of  Innocent  HI.;  of  Ivo,  Bishop  of  Chartres  —  Thomas 
Aquinas  affirms  the  Infallibility  of  the  Pope — Relation  of  the  Church  to 
the  State  —  The  Two  Swords  —  Plenitude  of  Papal  Power  asserted  by 
Boniface  VIII.  —  The  Bull  UnamSanctam  —  Decree  of  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance; of  Basle — The  University  of  Paris  —  The  Episcopal  System  in 
the  Church  of  Rome 108 

CHAPTER  X. 

John  Gerson  —  Distinction  between  the  Catholic  Church,  which  is  Infallible, 
and  the  Apostolic  Church,  which  is  Fallible  —  A  Council  superior  to  the 
Pope ;  bound  to  restrain  the  Papal  Usurpations,  and  to  refonn  the  Church 

—  Enormity  of  the  Papal  Claims  —  Account  of  Prevailing  Theories  of 
Church  Power — Two  Extreme  Views  —  The  Third  Theory  —  The  Inde- 
pendence of  the  Secular  Power —  Sovereignty  of  General  Councils  —  Infiil- 
libility  of  General  Councils  defended  by  Gerson  —  Definition  of  the  Papal 
Supremacy  by  the  Council  of  Florence       . 117 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Harbingers  of  the  Reformation  —  Doctrine  of  Wyclifte  ;  of  Matthias  of  Janow; 
of  John  Huss;  of  John  of  Goch;  of  John  of  Wcsel ;  of  John  Wcssel        .  127 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

FOURTH   PERIOD. 

FROM  THE  PUBLICATION  OF  THE  AUGSBURG  CONFESSION,  TO 
THE  PUBLICATION  OF  THE  «  TRACTS  FOR  THE  TIMES." 

1 530-1 840, 

CHAPTER  XII. 

PAGE 

Statements  of  the  Augsburg  Confession — Altered  Phraseology  of  the  Variata 

—  The  Papal  Confutation  fully  Answered  in  the  Apology  for  the  Augsburg 
Confession  —  Loci  Theologici — Views  of  Melanchthon  on  Church  Order 

—  The  Episcopal  System  in  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  —  The  Ter- 
ritorial System —  The  Collegial  System 136 

CHAPTER  Xni. 

Views  of  Luther — Harmony  of  the  Protestant  Confessions  —  The  Confessio 
Helvetica—  The  Confessio  Saxonica  —  The  Confessio  Anglicana  —  The 
Confessio  Belgica  —  Tli£-Heidelberg  Catechisn;i  —  Statements  of  Calvin  — 
Belief  in  the  Church— Two  Senses  of  the  Word  — The  Ministry  — The 
Church  of  Rome — Grades  of  Ministers  —  Form  of  Ordination  —  Ulrich 
Zwingli  T-. Distinction  between  Church  Visible  and  Invisible      .         .         .147 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

The  Anglican  Church  —  Abrogation  of  the  Papal  Supremacy — Papal  Ag- 
gressions  —  Independence  of  Rome  Declared  —  Ground  of  the  Declaration 

—  The  XIII.  Articles  of  1538— The  XLIL  Articles  — The  Ordinal  of 
1549-1552 — No  Distinction  in  Order  between  Bishop  and  Presbyter  — 
Cranmer's,  etc.,  Declaration  of  the  Functions,  etc.,  of  Bishops  and  Priests 

—  Resolutions  on  the  Sacrament  of  Orders — Cranmer's  INLiture  Views,  as 
expressed  in  Sermon  on  the  Power  of  the  Keys 157 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Catena  Martyrum  de  Ecclesia :  Tyndale ;  Latimer;  Ridley;  Bradford; 
Hooper;  Philpot— Catechism  of  1553 172 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

The  XL  Articles  of  1559  — Jewel's  Apology  —  Defence  of  the  Apology  — 
Nowell's  Catechism 179 


CONTENTS.  XIU 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

PAGB 

The  Tridentine  Doctrine  of  the  Church  —  Creed  of  Pius  IV.  —  Catechism 
of  the  Council — The  Church  Triumphant  and  the  Church  Militant  De- 
fined—  The  Four  Notes  of  the  Chuixh —  "The  Communion  of  Saints  "  — 
Sacrament  of  Order — Order  Defined — The  Priesthood  —  Priestly  Func- 
tions —  Degrees  in  the  Priesthood  —  The  Minister  of  the  Sacrament  — 
Effects  of  the  Sacrament i86 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

The  Greek  and  Greek-Russian  Church  —  Definition  of  the  Church  —  Though 
Visible,  an  Object  of  Faith  —  The  Unity  of  the  Church  —  Communion  of 
Saints  —  Invocation  of  Saints  —  Holiness  of  the  Church  —  Catholicity  — 
Indefectibility  —  Exclusiveness —  Peculiar  Privileges  of  the  Eastern  Church 
—  Apostolicity  —  The  Hierarchy  —  Authority  of  CEcumenical  Councils  — 
Sacrament  of  Orders 196 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Rise  of  the  Puritan  Controversy  —  Admonition  to  the  Parliament  —  Cart- 
wright  and  Whitgift  —  Points  in  Controversy  —  Sir  F.  Knollys'  Exceptions 
to  Whitgift's  Statements  concerning  Episcopacy  —  Bellarmine's  Statement 
of  the  Roman  Doctrine  —  The  Church  Militant  —  Notes  of  the  Church  — 
Papal  Infallibility  —  Four  Distinct  Opinions  —  Bellarmine's  Exposition  — 
Comparative  Authority  of  the  Pope  and  a  General  Council         .         .         .  202 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Views  of  the  Brownists — John  Raynolds  :  Conference  with  Hart — Argu- 
ment against  Peter's  Roman  Episcopate  —  Six  Conclusions  on  Scripture 
and  the  Church — Argument  in  Verse  —  The  Church  an  Article  of  Faith  — 
Bancroft's  Sermon  at  Paul's  Cross  —  Sir  F.  Knollys'  Exceptions  —  Ban- 
croft's Answer  to  Exceptions  —  Raynolds'  Review  of  the  Sermon      .         .214 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

Saravia  on  Degrees  in  the  Ministry  —  Bishops  Necessary  to  the  Church  — 
Presbyters  can  Ordain,  necessitate  cogente —  Keble's  Gloss  Amended  —  Sut- 
clitTe  on  Presbytery  —  Querimonia  Ecclesire  —  Bancroft's  Survey  of  the 
Pretended  Holy  Discipline — Lay  Eldership — Beza's  View  —  Tenure  of 
the  Office  —  Cartwright  Corrected 226 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

l^ilson's  Perpetual  Government  of  the  Church  —  Scope  of  the  Work  —  Apos- 
tolic Succession  through  Bishops  Affirmed  —  Hooker  —  Laws  of  Ecclesi- 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

astical  Polity  —  The  Nucleus  of  the  Controversy  between  the  Prelatists  and 
Puritans  —  Three  Views — Hooker's  Conduct  of  the  Argument — His 
Elevated  Aim  —  Distinction  between  the  Church  Mystical  and  Visible  — 
Church  and  State  one  Society  —  Theory  Identical  with  that  of  Locke  — 
Episcopacy  a  Divine  Institution  —  Ordination  without  a  Bishop  —  Presby- 
terian Orders  —  Keble's  Gloss 239 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Field  :  Of  the  Church  —  In  and  of  the  Church  —  Notes  —  Orders  —  Presby- 
terial  Ordination  —  Convocation  of  Canterbury ;  Proceedings  in  1 604-1 606; 
Canons  of — Bishop  Overall's  Convocation  Book        .         .         .         .         .  253 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

John  Robinson,  "  the  Father  of  Congregationalism  "  :  Baillie's  Account  of 
Him  —  Catechism  concerning  Church  Government — Definition  —  Notes  — 
Officers  — Calderwood's  Altar  of  Damascus —  Bishop  Davenant's  Assertion 
of  the  Protestant  Definition  of  the  Church  against  Bellarmine  ;  of  the 
Invisible  Church ;  of  Degrees  in  the  Ministry ;  of  Presbyterial  Ordination 

—  Lord  Chancellor  Bacon  :  "  Considerations  on  Church  Government  "       .  262 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

Bishop  Hall's  Episcopacy  by  Divine  Right  —  Revised  by  Archbishop  Laud  — 
Laud's  Exposition  of  Matt,  xxviii.  20  —  His  Doctrine  of  Apostolical  Suc- 
cession—  Divine  Right — Bishop  Hall's  Interpretation  —  Smectymnuus     .  272 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Controversial  Activity  in  1641  —  Mason's  Validity  of  Presbyterial  Ordination 

—  Its  Genuineness  Vindicated  —  Ground  of  its  Rejection  —  Milton's  Part 
in  the  Puritan  Controversy —  His  Exalted  Hopes  of  the  "Second  Reforma- 
tion "  —  Treatise  of  Reformation  Quoted  —  Origin  of  these  Polemical 
Tracts  —  Chillingworth  —  Apostolical  Institution  of  Episcopacy — Milton's 
Apology  for  Smectymnuus — Jeremy  Taylor  :  Sacred  Order  and  Offices  of 
Episcopacy  —  Characterized  by  Bishop  Heber  —  Adopts  the  Puritan  Posi- 
tion—  Recedes  from  that  of  Hooker  —  On  the  Plea  of  Necessity      .         .  281 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Erastianism  in  Westminster  Assembly  —  John  Selden  its  I^eading  Advocate 

—  His  Exjiosition  of  Matt,  xviii,  15-17  —  The  Ruling  Eldership  —  Pro- 
longed Discussion —  Calvin's  Theory  Rejected — ^Judgment  of  Blondel  and 


CONTENTS.  XV 


Vitringa  —  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  —  Rise  of  Quakerism  —  Bar- 
clay's Apology  —  Doctrine  of  the  Church  —  Dr.  Hammond  — Four  Disser- 
tations—  Annotations  on  the  New  Testament — Leading  the  Way  to  the 
Reconstruction  of  the  Ordinal — 1661-2  .         .     • 294 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

Stillingfleet's  Irenicum  — Object  of  the  Work  — The  Main  Question  Dis- 
cussed —  Divine  Right  —  Four  Pleas  —  Sermon  on  Mischief  of  Separation 

—  RepUes  of  Owen  and  Baxter  —  Review  by  John  Howe  —  "  Unreasona- 
bleness of  Separation  " 308 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Rights  of  Convocation  —  Revision  of  the  Liturgy  —  Alterations  Proposed  — 
Opposed  by  Sherlock  —  Advocated  by  Tenison  —  Anti-Revisionist  Tri- 
umph —  Synodal  Condemnation  of  Burnet's  Exposition  —  Dispute  between 
the  Upper  and  the  Lower  House  —  Declaration  of  the  Latter  —  Address 
and  Counter- Address  —  The  Bishops'  Reply  —  High  Church  and  Low 
Church 317 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

Lord  King's  Inquiry  —  Its  High  Profession  of  Candor  —  Not  Fully  Borne 
Out  —  Supports  Independency  —  Answered  by  Sclater  —  Original  Draught 

—  King's  Conversion  —  Probability  of  the  Tradition — Character  of  Scla- 
ter's  Argument 3^3 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Warburton's  Theory  of  the  Relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State  —  The  Alli- 
ance —  Analysis  of —  Coleridge's  Theory  Compared  — Arnold's  Theory  — 
Gladstone's  —  Bunsen's  —  Prevailing  Views  of  Church  Order  in  England 
as  Represented  by  Leslie  and  Law — Emanuel  Swedenborg:  Church  of 
the  New  Jerusalem 33^ 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

The  American  Episcopate  —  William  ^\^lite  —  Scheme  for  the  Organization 
of  the  American  Episcopal  Church  —  The  Divine  Right  of  Episcopacy  — 
Moderate  Views — The  Question  of  Lay  Eldership  in  the  American  Presby- 
terian Church  —  Dr.  J.  P.  Wilson  —  Dr.  Miller  —  Dr.  Breckinridge  — 
The  Question  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  — Dr.  Colin  Campbell  — Lay 
Eldership  Untenable  —  Dr.  George  Campbell  of  Aberdeen  —  Lectures  on 
Ecclesiastical  History — Bishop  Skinner  —  Defence  of  Episcopacy     .         .  345 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

PAGE 

Tracts  for  the  Times  —  Distinctive  Principles  of  Anglo-Catholicism  —  Apos- 
tolic Succession  —  In  Connection  with  the  Sacraments  —  Broad  Church 
View  of  the  Theory  —  Whately's  Kingdom  of  Christ  —  Buel's  Reply  — 
Isaac  Taylor  -^  "  Spiritual  Despotism  "  —  Testimony  to  Episcopacy  — 
Bishop  O'Brien's  Charge  —  Archer  Butler's  Sennon  —  Necessity  of  Limita- 
tion—  Principle  of  Accommodation .  357 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

Church  Questions  in  Germany  —  Mbhler's  "  Unity  in  fhe  Church"  —  Analysis 
of  the  Work^ — Rothe's  Anfange,  etc.  —  A  Protestant  Counterpart  —  His 
Theory  of  the  Church  —  Based  on  the  Hegelian  Principle  —  Theory  of  the 
Origin  of  the  Episcopate  —  Stahl's  Theory  of  the  Church  —  The  Neo- 
Lutheran  and  the  Anglo-Ca4:holic  Fundamentally  One  —  Schleiermacher's 
Theory  —  More  Recent  Views  —  Schenkel's  Exposition  of  the  Protestant 
View  —  Conclusion 367 


Bibliographical  Appendix  :   Literature  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Church ;  or, 
A  Catalogue  of  Works  relating  to  the  Subject 385 

Index 453 

Index  to  the  Bibliography 459 


HISTORY 

OF    THE 

DOCTRINE   OF  THE   CHURCH 


THE  history  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  may  be  divided 
into  four  main  periods:  the  first  extending  from  Clement 
of  Rome  to  Leo  the  Great  (a.  d.  1(30-460);  the  second,  from 
Leo  the  Great  to  Gregory  VIL  (460-1080);  the  third,  from 
Gregory  VII.  to  the  Reformation  (1080-15 30);  the  fourth, 
from  the  Reformation  to  the  present  time. 

To  the  reader  familiar  with  the  course  of  events  in  eccle- 
siastical history  it  will  be  at  once  apparent  that  these  divi- 
sions are  by  no  means  arbitrary,  or  chosen  with  reference 
to  the  writer's  convenience  merely,  but  are  determined  by 
clearly  marked  epochs  of  transition  from  one  phase  of  develop- 
ment in  the  history  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  to  another. 
Thus  the  Jlrst  period  finds  its  proper  point  of  departure  in  the 
episcopate  of  the  first  of  the  post-apostolic  Fathers,  whose 
Epistle  to  the  Church  of  Corinth  ranks  next  in  order  of  time, 
as  of  intrinsic  value,  to  the  apostolic  writings. 

The  patristic  utterances  on  the  subject  of  the  constitution 
of  the  Church,  during  the  next  succeeding  centuries,  down  to 
the  middle  of  the  fifth,  are  pervaded  by  the  same  material- 
istic spirit  that  we  find  already  prominently  developed  in  the 
writings  of  Ignatius.  The  Fathers  of  this  period  unite  with 
one  voice  in  emphasizing  the  objective  and  positive,  to  the 
relative  depreciation  of  the  subjective  and  spiritual ;  thus  un- 
consciously preparing  the  way  for  the  appearance  of  the  first 
Pope,  properly  so  called,  in  the  person  of  Leo  L  The  ad- 
2  17 


IS  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

vanced  claims  set  up  by  this  energetic  pontiff  for  the  great 
patriarchate  of  the  West,  mark  the  boundary  line  between  the 
period  of  acknowledged  equality  among  the  churches  of  apos- 
tolic descent,  and  that  of  the  usurped  domination  of  one  over 
all  others.  The  culmination  of  the  papal  system  in  the  pon- 
tificate of  HiLDEBRAND,  fixcs  the  close  of  the  secojtd  and  the 
beginning  of  the  third  period;  and  this  —  the  period  of  me- 
diaeval darkness  —  finds  its  fitting  close  in  the  rising  of  the 
day-star  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation,  an  epoch  signalized  by 
the  publication  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  the  enduring 
groundwork  of  all  the  other  Protestant  symbols.  The  limits 
of  \.\\Q  fourth  and  last  period  are  definitely  determined  by  the 
unbroken  course  of  development  in  the  history  of  our  doctrine 
during  the  last  three  centuries. 


FIRST   PERIOD. 

FROM  CLEMENT  OF  ROME  TO  LEO  THE  GREAT. 

A.   D.    100-460. 


CHAPTER  L 

Early  Patristic  Definitions  —  Clement  of  Rome  —  Definition  of  the 
Church  —  Unity — Ministry  —  Threefold  Order  —  Episcopacy  —  Igna- 
tius —  Definition  —  Theory  of  Unity  —  Ministry  —  Three  Orders  — 
Catholicity  of  the  Church. 

THE  works  of  the  Fathers  of  the  first  two  centuries  that 
have  come  down  to  us  contain  no  distinct  treatise  on  the 
Church.  The  statements  on  the  subject  scattered  through 
their  writings,  though  by  no  means  scanty,  are  for  the  most 
part  of  a  purely  practical  or  even  devotional  character. 
Rarely  do  the  definitions  of  the  Church  to  be  found  in  the 
pages  of  Ignatius  or  Irenaeus,  TertuUian  or  Origen,  make  any 
approach  to  scientific  precision. 

Clement,  bishop  of  Rome,  describes  "the  Church  of  God" 
as  constituted  of  *'  the  called  of  God  through  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ — the  called  and  sanctified  by 
the  will  of  God  through  Christ."  {Ep.  i.  59.) 

The  oneness  of  the  Church,  in  the  sense  of  exclusiveness, 
is  not  obscurely  taught  in  the  fervent  appeal  of  this 
first  of  the  Fathers  to  the  authors  of  sedition  in  the 
Church  of  Corinth  :  "  It  were  better  for  you  to  be  found  in  a 
lowly  position  and  of  approved  standing  in  the  flock  of  Christ, 
than  in  a  position  of  eminence,  to  be  cast  out  of  his  hope;" 
{ib.  Ivii.)  —  words  which  clearly  imply  that  exclusion  from  the 
one  visible  communion  of  the  faithful  involves  the  forfeiture 
of  the  hope  of  salvation. 

19 


20         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Throughout  the  Epistle  the  unity  of  the  Church  is  brought 
prominently  forward,  but  it  is  rather  the  unity  of  a  particular 
church,  under  one  government,  than  that  of  the  Church  at  large. 
Thus,  "  Let  us  consider  those  who  serve  under 
"^  ^*  our  generals,  with  what  order,  obedience,  and  sub- 
missiveness  they  perform  the  things  commanded  them.  All 
are  not  prefects  or  commanders  of  a  thousand  .  . .  but  each  one 
in  his  own  rank  performs  the  things  commanded  by  the  king 
and  the  generals.  The  great  cannot  subsist  without  the  small, 
nor  the  small  without  the  great.  .  .  .  Let  us  take  our  body  for 
an  example.  The  head  is  nothing  without  the  feet,  and  the 
feet  are  nothing  without  the  head  .  .  .  but  all  work  harmoni- 
ously together,  and  are  under  one  common  rule  of  subjection 
for  the  preservation  of  the  whole  body.  Let  our  whole  body 
be  preserved  in  Christ  Jesus ;  and  let  every  one  be  subject  to 
his  neighbor,  according  to  the  especial  gift  bestowed  upon  him. 
Let  the  strong  not  despise  the  weak,  and  let  the  weak  show 
respect  to  the  strong.  Let  the  rich  man  provide  for  the  wants 
of  the  poor,"  etc.  {^Ib.  xxxvii.,  xxxviii.) 

Clement's  idea  of  a  church  is  that  of  an  assembly  of  indi- 
vidual believers,  all  being  members  of  an  organic  whole,  each 
member  discharging  the  functions  assigned  it  by  the  Head. 
The  Epistle,  addressed  by  a  church  to  a  church,  makes  no 
mention  of  the  rulers  of  the  church  that  writes,  while  the 
ministers  of  the  church  addressed  are  spoken  of  in  a  way  that 
implies  the  right  of  the  church  itself  to  a  share  in  its  own 
government. 

Of  the  Christian  ministry  Clement  finds  a  type  in  the  Levit- 
ical  priesthood :  "  His  own  peculiar  services  are 
inis  ry.  ^ggjgj^^j  ^^  ^^  high-priest,  and  their  own  proper 
place  is  prescribed  to  the  priests,  and  their  own  special  minis- 
trations devolve  on  the  Levites ;  the  layman  is  bound  by  the 
laws  that  pertain  to  laymen."  {lb.  xl.) 

That  three  orders  or  grades  of  office  are  here  distinguished 
^^  ^        as  obtaininfT  in  the  Chrii^tian  ministry,  as  they  had 

Three  orders.  .        ,.,       ^        --i         •        i  i-, 

obtamed  m  the  Levitical  priesthood,  might  seem 
too   plain    for   question.     It   is    contended,  however,  by  the 


CLERGY    AND     LAITY.  21 

advocates  of  ministerial  parity,  that  the  reference  in  this  pas- 
sage is  exclusively  to  the  Jewish  priesthood,  and  that  nothing 
is  to  be  inferred  from  this  allusion  as  to  the  constitution  of 
the  ministry  in  the  primitive  Church.  But  if  the  argument  or 
illustration  is  by  analogy,  and  this  is  not  questioned,  it  would 
seem  altogether  arbitrary  to  exclude  from  the  analogy  the 
element  of  threefoldness.  The  scope  of  the  passage  is  to  show 
the  necessity  of  due  ecclesiastical  subordination  in  a  Christian 
community;  and  when  the  writer  speaks  of  the  economy  of 
the  Jewish  Church,  it  is  simply  in  the  way  of  allusion,  for  the 
purpose  of  suggesting  the  necessary  inference  in  regard  to  the 
Christian  ministry.  But  if  the  distinction  of  orders  in  the 
Christian  Church  had  not  corresponded  to  that  in  the  Jewish, 
the  allusion  would  scarcely  have  been  pertinent,  or  the  infer- 
ence just. 

The  distinction  between  the  ministerial  body  and  the  laity, 
here  broadly  drawn,  is  repeatedly  alluded  to  in  the  chapters 
following.  Thus,  "  Let  every  one  of  you,  brethren,  give  thanks 
to  God  in  his  own  order  .  .  .  not  going  beyond  the 

rule  of  the  ministry  prescribed  to  him The  apos-        Laftv-^" 

ties  have  preached  to  us  the  gospel  from  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ;  Jesus  Christ  from  God.  Christ,  therefore,  was 
sent  forth  by  God,  and  the  apostles  by  Christ.  Both  these 
appointments,  then,  were  made  in  an  orderly  way,  according 
to  the  will  of  God.  Having  therefore  received  their  orders,  .  .  . 
they  went  forth  proclaiming  that  the  kingdom  of  God  was  at 
hand.  And  thus  preaching  through  countries  and  cities,  they 
appointed  the  first  fruits  of  their  labors,  having  first  proved 
them  by  the.  Spirit,  to  be  bishops  and  deacons  of  those  who 
should  afterwards  believe.  .  .  .  And  what  wonder  is  it  if  those 
in  Christ  who  were  intrusted  with  such  a  duty  by  God,  ap- 
pointed those  (ministers)  before  mentioned,  when  the  blessed 
"  Moses  also,  '  a  faithful  servant  in  all  his  house,'  noted  down 
in  the  sacred  books  all  the  injunctions  which  were  given  him." 
Then,  after  naming  the  expedient  adopted  by  Moses  to  sub- 
due the  rivalry  in  Israel  concerning  the  priestly  dignity,  he 
continues :  "  Our  apostles  also  knew,  through  our  Lord  Jesus 


22  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Christ,  that  there  would  be  strife  on  account  of  the  office 
(ovoAaroc,  iiaiHC,  title,  dignity)  of  the  episcopate.  For  this  rea- 
son, therefore,  inasmuch  as  they  had  obtained  a  perfect  fore- 
knowledge of  this,  they  appointed  those  ministers  already 
mentioned,  and  meanwhile  gave  instruction  (stivom-tiv,  injunction, 
or  aftcr-cnactmcnt)  that  when  they  (the  apostles) 
P>sco-  gi^Qyjj  |-^||  asleep,  other  approved  men  should 
succeed  them  in  their  (the  apostles')  ministry.  We 
cannot  think,  therefore,  that  those  may  be  justly  dismissed 
from  their  ministry  who  were  appointed  by  them  (the  apos- 
tles), or  who  were  afterwards  appointed  by  other  eminent  men 
(the  apostles'  successors),  with  the  consent  of  the  whole 
Church."  (/^.  xli.-xliv.)* 

While  in  these  passages,  as  throughout  the  Epistle,  Clement, 
in  terms,  identifies  the  episcopate,  or  office  o{  oversight  in  gen- 
eral, with  the  presbyterate,  he  yet  at  the  same  time  indicates 
the  existence,  in  the  primitive  Church,  of  a  higher  office  of 
oversight  or  special  episcopate,  as  vested  in  the  first  called 
apostles  by  the  Lord,  and  by  them  transmitted  to  their  suc- 
cessors. 

According  to  this  interpretation  of  the  forty-fourth  chapter, 
as  above  quoted,  it  embodies  an  explicit  statement  of  the  apos- 
tolical institution  of  episcopacy  as  a  continuation  of  the  apos- 
tolate.  According  to  another  interpretation,  there  is  no  refer- 
ence in  the  passage  to  episcopacy,  properly  so  called ;  "  bishop  " 
and  **  presbyter,"  in  the  language  of  Clement,  being  strictly 
synonymous  terms.  The  pronouns  "  they,"  "  their,"  are  thus 
naturally  made  to  refer  to  the  presbyters  first  appointed  by 
the  apostles  themselves. 

Between  these  two  interpretations,  critical  authority  is  per- 
haps about  equally  divided.  Rothe's  strenuous  and  able 
advocacy  of  the  former  is  scarcely  balanced  by  Donaldson's 
summary  defence  of  the  latter,  even  as  reinforced  by  the  suf- 
frage of  Lightfoot.  (See  Rothe,  Anfcinge,  pp.  374-92  ;  Donald- 
son, Hist.  C/w.  Lit.  i.  137;  Lightfoot,  Philipp.  p.  203;  Epist.  S. 
Clcm.^.  137.) 

*  Note  A,  at  the  end  of  the  chapter. 


I  GN  ATI  AN    THEORY.  23 

Ignatius  defines  the  Church  as  "  the  multitude  or  assembly 
that  is  in  God  ;  "  and  "  the  Catholic  Church  "  as 
being   "wherever  Jesus   Christ  is."    [Trail,   viii. ;     K"^^'"^'^- 
Sniyr.  iii.     Here  we  note  the  earliest  occurrence 
of  the  expression  "  the  Catholic  ChurcJi!') 

The  unity  of  the  Church,  according  to  Ignatius,  is  repre- 
sented in  the  episcopate.     In   the  bishop   every 
particular  church,  and  in  the  episcopate  the  col- 
lective body  of  the  universal  Church,  have  each  its  proper 
bond  of  union,  and  centre  of  unity. 

That  this  theory  of  Church  unity  claims  Ignatius  for  its 
author,  may  appear  from  the  following  passages 
in  his  Epistles,  elucidated  by  the  aid  of  Rothe's  ^l^^^ 
masterly  analysis: — "Jesus  Christ,  our  insepa- 
rable life,  is  the  (manifested)  will  of  the  Father;  as  also 
bishops,  settled  everywhere  to  the  utmost  bounds  (of  the 
earth),  are  so,  by  the  will  of  Jesus  Christ.  Wherefore  it  is  fit- 
ting that  ye  should  run  together  in  accordance  with  the  will 
of  your  bishop."  (Eplics,  iii.,  iv.)  Here  the  common  point  of 
union  for  all  Christians  is  designated  ais,  in  its  essence,  "  the 
will  (/vwfxyj)  of  God,"  or  "of  Christ;"  in  its  outward  manifesta- 
tion, "the  will  of  the  bishop."  But  this  will  of  the  bishop  is 
represented,  not  merely  as  the  will  of  the  particular  bishop, 
and,  as  such,  a  point  of  union  for  the  members  of  a  particular 
church  merely,  but,  at  the  same  time,  as  the  one  and  the 
same  will  of  all  bishops  scattered  throughout  Christendom  ; 
consequently  also  as  a  point  of  union  for  all  particular 
churches.  The  episcopate  is  set  forth  as  one  and  the  same 
in  all  places  where  the  Church  is  planted,  and  hence  the  union 
of  the  particular  church  with  its  particular  bishop,  as  virtually 
also  a  union  with  all  bishops,  and  consequently  with  all 
churches  ;  in  a  word,  with  the. Church. 

The  "running  together"  of  all  Christians,  according  to  the 
will  of  God,  is,  moreover,  represented  as  resulting  from  their 
"  running  together  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  the  bishops, 
wIlo  are  settled  everyivliere  to  the  utmost  bounds  of  the  earth  ;"  a 
result  described  as  effected  through  their  all  being  in  unison 


24  THE     DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

with  the  will  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  thus  also  with  the  will  of 
God ;  and  as  being  in  unison  with  the  will  of  God,  all  the 

faithful  are  themselves  bound  together  in  a  perfect 
pate  011^      oneness.   And  it  is  as  viewed  in  this  light,  namely, 

as  bringing  particular  churches  into  organic  con- 
nection with  the  Church  considered  as  a  collective  whole, 
that  the  episcopate  is  characterized  expressly,  as  "  the  minislry 
ivhich  pertains  to  the  cofnmon  weal!'  (Phiiad.  i.) 

Again :  "  Wherever  the  bishop  shall  appear,  there  let  the 

multitude  (of  the  people)  also  be ;  even  as  where 
The    Church    r^^^   ^j^^j^^   •      ^^^^^    -^   ^^^   Catholic   Church." 

one  in  the        •;  ^  ...  .       ,  .  ,         ,      , 

bishop  [Sifiyr.  viii.)     In  order  to  apprehend  the  true  im- 

port of  this  passage,  it  is  necessary  not  only  to 
understand  the  meaning  of  the  two  clauses  composing  it,  each 
by  itself,  but  also  the  relation  of  the  two  to  each  other.  As- 
suming, then,  that  the  two  members  of  this  proposition  stand 
to  each  other  in  a  definite  logical  relation,  and  that  the  latter 
is  the  ground  of  the  former  —  what,  we  inquire,  is  the  import 
of  the  two,  each  taken  separately  ?  And  first,  as  to  the  latter, 
"  Where  Jesus  Christ  is,  there  is  the  Catholic  Church,"  the 
meaning  plainly  is,  that  with  Christ,  the  head  of  his  mystical 
body,  all  the  faithful  are  intimately  united,  so  as  to  form,  in 
vital  union  with  him,  an  external  unity;  that  Christ  cannot 
become  the  subject  of  our  thought  without  our  thinking,  at 
the  same  time,  of  such  a  communion  of  his  mystical  members 
joined  together  in  an  external  unity  —  the  Catholic  Church, 
that  is  to  say,  the  Church  as  Catholic. 

The  meaning  of  the  first  member  is  no  less  plain,  "  Wher- 
ever the  bishop  shall  appear,"  that  is  to  say,  in  his  proper 
character  ^.f  ^/^/r^/,  ''there  let  the  multitude  of  the  people  also 
be ; "  in  other  words,  there  let  the  particular  churches,  in  full 
number,  be  gathered  about  him,  the  centre  of  unity  to  all  the 
churches  under  his  supreme  pastoral  oversight.  Let  all  faith- 
fully adhere  to  him  as  their  bond  of  union  with  one  another. 

Now,  from  the  two  members  of  this  passage  viewed  in  their 
causal  relation  to  each  other,  we  deduce  this  proposition  :  As 


NO    CHURCH     WITHOUT    THE    BISHOP.  25 

the  community  of  the  faithful  in  Christ  is  everywhere  essen- 
tially and   necessarily  united   to  Christ  so  as   to 
constitute  an  external  orcranic  whole,  even  so,  and      ]^  ,  "'^^'" 

^  .        '  the  l)i:,hop. 

fortius  reason,  wherever,  in  a  particular  church,  the 
bishop  publicly  appears  in  his  official  character  as  such,  there 
must  the  Church  also,  in  full  number,  be  gathered  together; 
a  proposition,  it  is  evident,  which  is  susceptible  of  a  coherent 
interpretation  only  on  the  supposition  that  the  bishop  is  the 
representative  and  organ  of  Christ. 

To  the  same  effect,  Onesimus,  the  bishop  of  the  Church  at 
Ephesus,  is  described  as  "  your  bishop  in  the  flesh,"  that  is  to 
say,  your  Juiman,  visible,  earthly  bishop ;  so  designated,  it  is 
evident,  in  distinction  from  the  divine,  invisible,  heavenly  Bishop, 
Christ  or  God,  and  as  that  invisible  Bishop's  earthly  repre- 
sentative. {Ephes.  i.) 

Further,  "  For  we  ought  to  receive  every  one  whom  the 
master  of  the  house  sends  to  be  over  his  household,  as  we 
would  do  him  that  sent  him.  It  is  manifest,  therefore,  that  we 
should  look  upon  the  bishop  even  as  we  would  upon  the  Lord 
himself."  {Ephes.  vi.)  "  Study  to  do  all  things  with  a  divine 
harmony,  while  your  bishop  presides  in  the  place 

r^jt  u.-^u         1  c  ^\^  The  bishop 

of  God,  and  your  presbyters  m  the  place  of  the    Christ's  vicar. 

assembly  of  the  apostles,  along  with  your  deacons." 

[Magn.  vi.)     "  It  becomes  you  to  yield  him  (the  bishop)  all 

reverence,  having  respect  to  the  power  of  God  the  Father, .  .  . 

submitting  to  him,  or  rather,  not  to  him,  but  to  the  Father  of 

Jesus  Christ,  the  Bishop  of  us  all.     It  is  therefore  fitting  that 

you  obey  (your  bishop),  in  honor  of  him  who  has  willed  us 

so  to  do,  since  he  who  does  not  obey  deceives,  not  the  bishop 

that  is  visible,  but  seeks  to  mock  him  thai  is  invisible!'  {Id.  iii.) 

"  Since  ye  are  subject  to  the  bishop  as  to  Jesus 

Christ,  ye  appear  to  me  to  live,  not  after  the  man-  \^^^^y^^^^^  jj^^ 

ner  of  men,  but  according  to  Jesus  Christ.     It  is      bishop. 

necessary  that,  as  indeed  ye  do,  so   without  the 

bishop  ye  should  do  nothing."    {Trail,  ii.)     "Let  all  reverence 

the  bishop  as  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  Son  of  the  Father;  and 


26         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

the  presbytery  as  the  Sanhedrin  of  God,  and  assembly  of  the 
apostles.     Apart  from  these  there  is  no  church."  (/^.  iii.) 

Now,  if  the  bishop  is  Christ's  representative,  it  follows  that 
the  external,  visible  society  of  Christians  must  needs  sustain 
the  same  relation  to  him  that,  in  virtue  of  an  inner  necessity, 
it  sustains  to  Christ  himself  But  if  the  visible  Christian  com- 
munity is  related  to  Christ,  essentially  and  necessarily,  as  a 
(visible)  unity,  then  the  particular  part  of  that  community  com- 
mitted to  the  oversight  of  a  bishop,  that  is,  the  particular 
church  in  which  he  exercises  his  office  as  Christ's  representa- 
tive and  organ,  must  also  be  related  to  its  bishop  as  an  ex- 
ternal, visible  unity.  And  thus,  according  to  Ignatius,  the 
bishop,  as  Christ's  representative,  is  also  virtually  the  repre- 
sentative, at  the  same  time,  of  the  external  unity  of  all  the 
faithful  in  Christ  —  the  representative  of  church  unit\'.  Not 
only  the  representative,  however,  the  bishop  is  also  the  organ 
of  Church  unity ;  that  is  to  say,  he  not  merely  represents  the 
external  unity  of  all  the  faithful  in  his  own  person,  but  he 
actually  realizes  that  unity,  in  his  forming  a  centre  of  unity 
around  which  the  collective  body  of  the  faithful  gather  in  a 
visible  union.  But  this  holds  true,  according  to  Ignatius,  not 
of  the  individual  bishop,  as  such,  but  of  the  collective  whole 
of  all  individual  bishops ;  in  a  word,  not  of  the  bishop,  but  of 
the  EPISCOPATE.  The  bishops  are  the  representatives  and 
organs  of  the  Church,  in  so  far  as  they,  in  accordance  with  the 
specific  character  of  the  episcopate,  are  the  immediate  repre- 
sentatives, plenipotentiaries,  and  organs  of  Christ.  In  them, 
Christ,  so  to  speak,  is  multiplied  ;  in  them,  his  omnipresence, 
within  the  sphere  of  Christendom  is  rendered  visible.  It  is 
He  who,  in  reality,  through  the  bishop  as  his  instrument,  ex- 
ercises in  ALL  churches  a  guiding  and  controlling  influence. 
One  and  the  same  divine  Being,  therefore,  presides  over  every 
particular  church,  through  the  medium,  indeed,  of  different 
individual  representatives.  And  thus  all  particular  churches 
are  bound  together  in  the  most  thorough  unity ;  only,  how- 
ever, under  the  condition  of  organic  adhesion,  on  the  part  of 
each  particular  church,  to  its  own  bishop.     This  adhesion  of 


PRIMARY    IMPORT.  2/ 

particular  churches,  severally,  to  their  bishop,  virtually  in- 
volv^es  adhesion  to  the  bishops  collectively  of  all  other  par- 
ticular churches,  (and  through  them  also  to  all  other  particular 
Churches  themselves,)  inasmuch  as  all  particular  bishops  find 
their  common  centre  of  being,  or  point  of  union,  in  one  per- 
son—  in  Christ,  in  God.* 

Here,  then,  at  the  very  dawn  of  the  post-apostolic  period, 
we  trace  the  germinal  development  of  that  theory  of  church 
unity  which,  as  first  fully  unfolded  in  the  writings  of  Cyprian, 
is  commonly  known  as  the  C}'pna?iic.'\ 

In  the  Epistle  of  Ignatius  to  the  church  at  Smyrna,  we  have 
noted  the  earliest  express  mention  of  the  catholicity  of  the 
Church.  Those  who  dispute  the  genuineness  of  this  epistle, 
(admitting  that  only  of  the  Syrian  recension^  find  the  first  oc- 
currence of  this  predicate  in  the  inscription  of  the 
circular,  Epistle  of  the  Church  of  Smyrna  concerning  ^  ^°  ^^^  ^' 
the  martyrdom  of  St.  Poly  carp  (147-169):  "The  church  of  God 
sojourning  at  Smyrna,  to  the  church  of  God  sojourning  at 
Philomelium,  and  to  all  the  congregations  of  the  Holy  and 
Catholic  Church  in  every  place." 

In  this,  its  primary  application,  the  term  Catholicity,  it  is 
obvious,  is  not  simply  equivalent,  as  in  modern  use,  to  uni- 
versality, but  rather  conveys  the  idea  of  organic  unity  —  "a 
whole  composed  of  various  parts,  which  have  no  proper  exist- 
ence independently  of  that  of  which  they  are  parts ; " 
in  a  word,  (according  to  its  etymology,)  an  organ-  ^^.^ 

ized  totality.  It  was  in  contrast  to  sectarism  — 
heresy,  the  principle  of  division  —  that  the  term  Catholic,  as 
a  descriptive  title,  was  first  applied  to  the  Church.  It  would 
thus,  in  primitive  use,  seem  to  have  comprised  the  three  dis- 
tinct notions  of  unity,  properly  so  called,  or  the  union  of  the 
members  of  Christ's  mystical  body  with  the  head  and  with 
each  other;  of  oneness  —  oneliness,  or  exclusiveness  —  as  dis- 
tinguished from  unity  ;  and  of  universality. 

It  is  in  this  superscription  of  the  Smyrnaean  epistle,  more- 
over, that  we  find  the  earliest  explicit  mention  of  holiness,  as 
*  Note  B.  f  Note  C. 


28  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE, CHURCH. 

an  attribute  of  the  Church  Cathohc.  Thus,  in  a  document 
belonging  to  the  first  half  of  the  second  century,  we  meet  with 
the  selfsame  predicates  of  the  Church  which  are  contained  in 
the  Apostles'  Creed:  Unity,  Oneness  or  Exclusiveness,  Holi- 
ness, Catholicity. 


NOTES. 
A. 

Krtt  oi  (iTOffroXoi  fiii<Jiv  tyvoiaav  iia  too  Knpiow  ^^ci5f  'lijaoC  XptVrow,  ort  tpii  larai  inl  rou 
d"i/iaros  rnf  cnioHonfji.  Aia  ravrnv  o9v  airiav  np^yvcjaiv  ei\ri<p6re(  reXeiav  Karearriaav  roiii 
nfiocipniicyovf,  Kai  f/cra^v  iniPOfifiv  SeScoKCuriv  Srrwj,  cav  KOiiiiiduian',  fiaiej^cjvrai  erepoi  fitibKi^aa- 
fitvoi  ufdScj  rrjw  \EiTOt<pyiav  avrdv.  Touf  oiv  KaraaOaOeyrai  in  eKcitxov  7;  ^£rajt»  v0'  crcf^iov 
jAXoyj/iwf  di'^ffuif^  awevdoKnaaam  rfif  cKKXnaiai  iraam,  /cat  XtiToupyftaavrai  dyiinvTWi  rto 
Totftviui  To9  XpiOTOV  fieui  TantiPOtjtpooiyrji  .  .  .  rovrovs  ov  ^i«ca/u)j  vo/it^o/icj/  dnopaXXcadai  rijf 
XEiTOvpyiai. 

For  entvoiirtv  —  of  very  doubtful  meaning  —  Bunsen  and  Lightfoot  adopt  the 
conjectural  reading  trtnovrjv,  the  former  in  the  sense  of  "  life-tenure,^^  {Hippol.  i.,  p. 
45,  ed.  2;)  the  latter  in  that  of  '■^permanence  to  the  office."  {Ep.  Clem.,  p,  136.) 
The  change  in  either  meaning  is  scarcely  an  amendment,  as  the  commonly  received 
interpretation  yields  an  unexceptionable  sense.  The  ground  of  objection  to  Rothe's 
"i»:ndering  of  the  whole  passage,  as  alleged  by  Lightfoot,  viz.,  that  "  it  disregards 
the  purpose  of  the  letter,  and  interrupts  the  context  with  irrelevant  matter,"  [Ep. 
Phil.,  p.  203 ;  Ep.  Clem.,  p.  137,)  is  also  put  forward  by  Donaldson,  who  strangely 
renders  tnuonriv  "an  addition,"  or  "a  distribution" — meaning  that  "the  apostles 
made  a  second  choice  of  men,  in  order  that  if  the  first  should  die,  there  would  be 
others  ready  to  take  their  place."  [Crit.  Hist,  i.,  138.)  This  latter  writer  does 
Rothe  scant  justice  in  assigning  to  his  translation  of  the  word  in  dispute,  "  a 
fundamental  position  in  his  exposition  of  the  government  of  the  Church  at  this 
period."  On  the  contrary,  Rothe's  exposition  is  supported  by  considerations  quite 
independent  of  any  one  translation  of  the  term  in  question.    {Anf,  pp.  354-92.) 

B. 

I  have  assumed,  as  being  supported  by  the  weight  of  modem  critical  authority, 
the  genuineness  and  substantial  integrity  of  the  Ignatian  Epistles  of  the  shorter  Greek 
recension.  On  this  point,  an  enumeration  of  no  less  than  eighty-eight  opinions  is 
given  by  Jacobson,  Proleg.  xxv.-lvii.  The  state  of  the  question  is  well  exhibited 
in  brief  compass  by  Uhlhorn,  \n  I{ertzog''s  Real  Ency clop.,  art.  Ignatius.  In 
his  summary  of  the  evidence  in  favor  of  the  genuineness  of  the  seven  smaller 
Epistles,  Dr.  Schaflf  makes  a  point  of  "  their  urgent  recommendation  of  episcopacy 
as  an  institution  still  ne7v  attd fresh."  [I/ist.  i.  469.)  That  a  writer  of  Dr.  Schaff's 
superior  candor  should  lend  the  sanction  of  his  name  to  so  feeble  an  attempt  to 
explain  the  singular  urgency  of  Ignatius  in  recommending  episcopacy  is  indeed 


NOTES. 


29 


surprising,  and  would  be  unaccountable,  did  we  not  know  the  power  of  precon- 
ceived opinion  in  warping  the  strongest  judgment.  To  no  unbiased  mind  can  that 
explanation  commend  itself  as  even  plausible.  The  claims  of  "  an  institution  still 
new  and  fresh  "  —  a  known  departure  from  the  original  apostolic  order,  would 
naturally  be  urged  by  its  first  advocates  with  studied  moderation  ;  at  least,  those 
claims  would  not  be  vehemently  pressed,  as  demanding  unconditional  and  uni- 
versal recognition.  Why  not  at  once  accept  the  explanation  given  by  Ignatius 
himself.  In  a  noteworthy  passage,  he  describes  himself  as  "a  man  formed  and 
fitted  for  promoting  unity"  —  afOpwiros  etj  £^w(T^^'  KurripTia^iefOi  —  that  is  to  say,  one 
who  regarded  it  as  his  especial  mission  to  check  the  inroads  of  a  spreading  spirit 
of  insubordination  in  the  churches,  threatening,  as  he  was  persuaded,  their  utter 
disintegration.  As  the  sole  effectual  means  of  accomplishing  this  object,  he  is 
moved  to  insist,  ivit/i  all  the  authority  of  a  man  divinely  inspired  for  the  purpose^ 
upon  a  strict  adherence  to  the  episcopal  foiTn  of  polity,  known  to  him  as  of  apos- 
tolic institution,  and  devoutly  believed  by  him  to  be  of  divine  right:  "I  cried 
whilst  I  was  among  you  :  I  spake  with  a  loud  voice :  attend  to  the  bishop,  and  to 
the  presbytery,  and  to  the  deacons.  Now  some  supposed  that  I  spake  this  as  fore- 
seeing the  division  that  should  come  among  you.  But  He  is  my  witness,  for 
whose  sake  I  am  in  bonds,  that  I  know  nothing  from  any  man.  Bnt  the  Spirit 
spake,  saying  on  this  wise  :  Do  nothitig  without  the  bishop.^''  [Fhil.  viii. ;  ibid,  i.) 

C. 

According  to  another  interpretation  of  the  Ignatian  theory,  the  bishop  is  the 
representative  of  the  unity  of  the  congregation,  or  of  a  particular  church  only ;  not 
that  of  the  collective  whole  of  all  churches  throughout  the  world;  of  this  —  "the 
Catholic  Church"  —  Christ  alone  is  the  centre  of  unity.  Thus  Uhlhorn,  who  says, 
"  Ignatius  sees  in  the  episcopate,  indeed,  as  the  headship  of  a  particular  church,  a 
special  means  for  the  preservation  of  ecclesiastical  unity  against  the  inroads  of 
heresy;  but  the  bishops  are  not,  in  his  view,  the  bearers  of  traditional  doctrine  on 
the  ground  of  a  special  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  nor  is  any  particular  importance 
attached  to  the  succession  of  the  bishops."  While  the  form  of  church  polity  found 
in  Ignatius  is  acknowledged  by  this  writer  to  be  a  decided  advance  upon  that 
developed  in  the  Epistle  of  Clement,  in  which  only  a  prominent  presbyter  — 
primus  inter  pares — appears,  yet  it  falls,  he  insists,  considerably  short  of  that 
developed  in  the  writings  of  Irenteus.  {Plertzog,  vi.  629,)  How  some  of  the 
Ignatian  utterances  are  to  be  reduced  into  harmony  with  this  explanation,  it  is 
not  easv  to  see. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Irenaeus  —  DefiiNition  of  the  Church  —  Exclusiveness  —  Unity  —  Apos- 
TOLiciTY  —  Of  the  Church  of  Rome  —  Tertullian  —  Apostolicity  of 
THE  Church  —  Succession  of  Doctrine — Of  the  Church  of  Rome  — 
Agreement  with  Irenaeus  —  The  Universal  Priesthood  —  Of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome. 

FULLY  accordant  with  the  teaching  of  Ignatius  is  that  of 
Irenaeus,  who  defines  the  Church  as  "  the  synagogue  of 
God,  which  God,  the  Son  himself,  has  gathered  by  himself — 
consisting  of  those  who  have  received  the  adoption."  {Hacr. 
iii.    6.)      The    Church's   exclusiveness    is    insisted 
12  -202'       upori  by  Irenaeus  with  peculiar  urgency:  *'  In  the 
Church,  the  apostles,  like  a  rich  man  depositing 
his  money  in  a  bank,  lodged  all  things  pertaining  to  the  truth ; 
so  that  from  her,  every  man,  whosoever  will,  can  draw  the 
water  of  life.     She  is  the  entrance  to  life  ;  all  others  are  thieves 
and  robbers."    "This  gift  of  God  —  our  faith,  which 
xc  usiveness.  j-^^^jj^^  been  received  from  the  Church,  we  do  pre- 
serve .  .  .  has  been  intrusted  to  the  Church,  as  breath  was  to 
the  first  created  man,  for  this  end,  that  all  the  members  receiv- 
ing it  may  be  vivified.  .  .  .  All  the  means  through  which  the 
Spirit  works,  God  hath  set  in  his  Church ;  of  which  all  who 
do   not  unite  with   the  Church  do  not  partake,  but  defraud 
themselves  of  life.      For  where  the  Church  is,  there  is   the 
Spirit  of  God ;  and  where  the  Spirit  of  God  is,  there  is  the 
Church,  and  every  kind  of  grace."  {lb) 

Of  the  UNITY  of  the  Church,  Irenaeus,  in  full  harmony  with 
Ignatius,  makes  the    episcopate    the    specific    organ :    **  True 
knowledge  is  that  which  consists  in  the  doctrine 
"'^^'       of  the  apostles,  and  the  ancient  constitution  (cru(T- 
Tr].aa)  of  the  Church  throughout  all  the  world,  and  the  distinc- 
tive manifestation  of  the  body  of  Christ  (character  corporis) 
30 


APOSTOLICITY.  3I 

according  to  the  successions  of  the  bishops,  by  which  they 
have  handed  down  that  church  which  exists  in  every  place, 
and  has  come  even  unto  us."  {lb.  iv.  33.)  These  words  can 
import  no  less  than  that  the  unity  of  the  Church  universal,  as 
a  regularly  organized  system,  is  constituted  by  the  episcopate. 

The  apostolicity  of  the  Church  is  a  frequently  recurring  topic 
in  the  writings  of  this  Father.  Throughout  his  great  work 
Against  Heresies,  it  is  his  leading  argument  against  the  sect- 
aries, that  the  Church  Catholic  could  trace  back  its  origin  his- 
torically to  the  apostles,  through  the  uninterrupted 
succession  of  its  bishops ;  while  the  separatists  of  ^^°^  °  '^'^^'' 
every  name  were  of  recent  origin.  "  It  is  within  the  power 
of  all,"  he  writes,  "  in  every  church,  ...  to  contemplate  clearly 
the  tradition  of  the  apostles  manifested  throughout  the  whole 
world  ;  and  we  are  in  a  position  to  reckon  up  those  who  were 
by  the  apostles  instituted  bishops  in  the  churches,  and  (to 
show)  the  successions  of  these  men  to  our  own  times  ;  those 
who  neither  taught  nor  knew  of  anything  like  what  these 
(heretics)  rave  about."  [Adv.  Haer.  iii.  i.) 

"Wherefore  we  ought  to  obey  the  presbyters  who  are  in 
the  Church,  who  have  the  succession  from  the  apostles,  as  we 
have  shown,  who,  with  the  succession  of  the  episcopate,  have 
received  the  sure  gift  of  truth,  according  to  the  Father's  good 
pleasure.  But  to  regard  others  who  are  separate  from  the 
principal  succession,  and  are  gathered  together  in  any  place, 
as  suspected,  or  as  heretics  and  of  bad  principles,  or  as  schis- 
matic, and  proud,  and  self-pleasing,  or  as  hypocrites  who  act 
on  account  of  gain  or  vain-glory ;  but  all  these  have  departed 
from  the  truth  ;  and,  indeed,  heretics  who  offer  on  the  altar 
of  God  strange  fire,  that  is,  strange  doctrines,  will  be  burned 
with  fire  from  heaven,  like  Nadab  and  Abihu.  But  those  who 
rise  up  against  the  truth,  and  exhort  others  against  the  Church 
of  God,  remain  in  the  infernal  regions,  being  swallowed  up  in 
an  earthquake,  as  were  those  about  Corah,  Dathan,  and  Abi- 
ram.  But  those  who  divide  and  separate  the  unity  of  the 
Church,  receive  from  God  the  same  punishment  as  Jeroboam." 
{Ibid.  iv.  43.) 


32  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

"All  these  (heretics)  are  of  much  later  date  than  the  bishops 
to  whom  the  apostles  committed  the  churches.  It  follows, 
then,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  these  heretics,  since  they  are 
blind  to  the  truth,  and  deviate  from  the  right  way,  will  walk 
in  various  roads  ;  and  therefore  the  footsteps  of  their  doctrine 
are  scattered  here  and  there,  without  agreement  or  connection. 
But  the  path  of  those  belonging  to  the  Church  circumscribes 
the  whole  world,  as  possessing  the  sure  tradition  from  the 
apostles,  and  gives  unto  us  to  see  that  the  faith  of  all  is  one 
and  the  same,  since  all  receive  one  and  the  same  God,  the 
Father,  and  believe  in  the  same  dispensation  regarding  the 
incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  are  cognizant  of  the  same 
gift  of  the  Spirit,  and  are  conversant  with  the  same  command- 
ments, and  preserve  the  same  form  of  ecclesiastical  constitu- 
tion, and  expect  the  same  advent  of  the  Lord,  and  await  the 
same  salvation  of  the  complete  man,  that  is,  of  the  soul  and 
body."  {lb.  V.  20.) 

Of  the  Church  of  Rome,  Irenaeus  speaks  in  these  remarkable 
terms :  "  With  this  church,  on  account  of  its  more  important 
pre-eminence  (^potcntioirm  principalitateni),  or  superior  head- 
ship, it  is  necessary  that  every  church,  that  is,  the 

of  Rome  faithful  on  every  side  (or  everywhere  —  iindiquc) 
should  agree,  in  which  (church)  that  tradition 
which  is  from  the  apostles  has  always  been  preserved  by  those 
who  are  on  every  side."  {Haer.  iii.  3.)* 

In  order  to  ascertain  the  true  import  of  these  words,  which 
have  been  much  disputed,  it  will  be  necessary  to  view  them 
in  their  connection.  In  the  section  of  his  treatise  in  which 
they  occur,  the  writer's  argument  against  the  heretics  is  drawn 
from  apostolic  tradition,  as  preserved  in  the  churches  planted 
by  the  apostles,  in  which  a  perpetual  succession  of  bishops 
had  been  kept  up :  — "It  is  within  the  power  of  all,  therefore, 
in  every  church,  who  may  wish  to  see  the  truth,  to  contem- 
plate clearly  the  tradition  of  the  apostles  manifested  through- 
out the  whole  world ;  and  we  are  in  a  position  to  reckon  up 
those  who  were   by  the  apostles    instituted   bishops  in  the 

*  Note  D. 


ROMISH     INTERPRETATION.  33 

churches,  and  the  successions  of  these  men  to  our  own  times; 
those  who  neither  taught  nor  knew  anything  Hke  what  these 
(heretics)  rave  about.  For  if  the  apostles  had  known  hidden 
mysteries,  which  they  were  in  the  habit  of  imparting  to  '  the 
perfect*  apart  and  privily  from  the  rest,  they  would  have  deliv- 
ered them  especially  to  those  to  whom  they  were  also  com- 
mitting the  churches  themselves.  For  they  were  desirous  that 
these  men  should  be  very  perfect  and  blameless  in  all  things,, 
whom  also  they  were  leaving  behind  as  their  successors,  deliv- 
ering up  their  own  place  of  government  to  these  men ;  who, 
if  they  discharged  their  functions  honestly,  would  be  a  great 
boon  (to  the  Church),  but  if  they  should  fall  away,  the  direst 
calamity. 

"  Since,  however,  it  would  be  very  tedious,  in  such  a  volume 
as  this,  to  reckon  up  the  successions  of  all  the  churches,  we 
do  put  to  confusion  all  those  who,  in  whatever  manner,  whether 
by  an  evil  self-pleasing,  by  vain-glory,  or  by  blindness  and 
perverse  opinion,  assemble  in  unauthorized  meetings,  by  indi- 
cating that  tradition  derived  from  the  apostles,  of  the  very  great, 
the  very  ancient,  and  nniversally  known  church  founded  and 
organized  at  Rome  by  the  two  most  glorious  apostles,  Peter 
and  Paul ;  as  also  (by  pointing  out)  the  faith  preached  to  men, 
which  comes  down  to  our  time  by  means  of  the  successions  of 
the  bishops.  For  with  this  church,  on  account  of  its  more 
important  pre-eminence,  it  is,"  etc.,  as  already  quoted. 

Here,  say  the  Romanist  theologians,  is  a  clear  affirmation 
of  the  supremacy  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  of  the  duty  of 
all  Christians,  and  of  all  churches,  to  submit  to  her  as  supreme. 
And,  since  the  Bishop  of  Rome  is  the  head  of 
that    church,  all    owe    him    obedience.      But  the  .  ^  ^""^^ 

'  _  interpretation. 

Romish  interpretation  of  the  words, "  It  is  necessary 
that  every  church  agree  with  this  (the  Roman)  church,"  viz., 
"  It  is  the  duty  of  every  particular  church  to  conform  to  the 
Church  of  Rome,"  (Protestants  contend,)  is  in  conflict  with  the 
drift  of  the  writer's  argument.  His  appeal  is  to  the  witness 
of  the  Church  universal.  By  "every  church,"  as  explained  by 
himself— "that  is,  the  faithful  everyuhere,''  the  whole  body 
3 


34  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

of  believers — he  means  the  whole  Church  ;  and  he  singles 

out  one  church  as  an  unexceptionable  representative  of  the 

whole,  as  having  been  founded  by  the  apostles  Peter  and  Paul, 

and  from  them,  through  an  unbroken  succession  of  bishops, 

down  to  the  then  presiding  Bishop  of  Rome,  having  preserved 

in    purity,   and   handed  down    inviolate,  the    apostolic   faith. 

Irenaeus,  then,  means  to  say,  not  that  every  church 

.  ,      ^^^\.      must  yield  obedience  to  that  of  Rome  ;  but  that  the 
interpretation.  ^  ' 

Catholic  faith  being  one,  and  the  Catholic  Church 
being-  one  in  the  confession  of  that  faith,  and  the  Church  of 
Rome  being  a  constituent  part  of  that  undivided  whole,  which, 
confessedly,  is  "  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth,"  and  being, 
moreover,  distinguished  among  all  the  churches  of  the  West 
by  its  greater  amplitude,  its  moi^e  august  antiquity,  and  its  more 
importaiit  precedence,  as  foimded  by  the  two  most  eminent  apostles, 
it  may  be  assumed  as  a  moral  certainty  that  every  church 
throughout  the  world  —  the  Church  universal — is  in  agree- 
ment with  that  of  Rome,  and  truly  represented  by  her;  and 
hence,  that  in  appealing  to  Rome,  he  in  effect  appeals  to  the 
whole  Church,  whose  witness  is  virtually  embodied  in  hers. 
The  same  line  of  argument  in  refutation  of  heresy  is  pur- 
sued by  Irenaeus's  contemporary, Tertullian,  who 
160^220'    constantly  appeals  to  the  apostolical  churches  col- 
lectively, as  bearing  concordant  witness  to  the  one 
apostolic  and  Catholic  faith. 

This  first  of  the  Latin  Fathers,  in  a  treatise  written  before  his 
conversion  to  Montanism,  speaks  of  the  Church  as  deriving 
its  descent  from  the  apostles;  as  being  composed  of  the  col- 
lective whole  of  the  churches  founded  by  the  apos- 
tles, together  with  their  offshoots ;  all  preserving 
the  unity  of  the  same  faith  and  discipline.  "  The  apostles,"  he 
writes,  "  having  obtained  the  promised  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  for  the  working  of  miracles,  and  for  utterance,  first 
having  throughout  Judea  borne  witness  to  the  faith  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  established  churches,  next  went  forth  into  the 
world,  and  preached  the  same  doctrine  of  the  same  faith  to 
the  nations,  and  forthwith  founded   churches   in   every  city. 


SUCCESSION    OF    DOCTRINE.  35 

from  whence  the  other  churches  thenceforward  received  the  tra- 
dition of  the  faith  and  the  seeds  of  doctrine,  and  are  daily 
receiving  them,  that  they  may  become  churches.  The  whole 
kind  must  needs  be  classed  under  their  original.  Wherefore, 
these  churches,  so  many  and  so  great,  are  but  that  one  primi- 
tive Church  from  the  apostles,  whence  they  all  spring.  Thus 
all  are  the  primitive,  and  all  the  apostolical  (Church),  while  all 
are  one.  The  communion  of  peace,  the  title  of  brotherhood, 
and  the  token  of  hospitality  prove  this  unity  —  a  unity  which 
has  its  fundamental  principle  in  the  oneness  of  the  tradition  of 
the  same  doctrine"  (sacramenti — the  sacred  truth  of  the  gos- 
pel, styled  in  Eph.  iii.  4,  "the  mystery"  —  sacramentum  —  "of 
Christ  ").  {^De  Prescript.  Haer.  xx). 

Again  :  "  To  this  point,  therefore,  we  direct  prescription  ; 
that  if  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  sent  the  apostles  to  preach,  no 
others  ought  to  be  received  as  preachers  than  those  whom 
Christ  appointed;  for  *no  man  knoweth  the  Father  save  the 
Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  hath  revealed  him.' 
Neither  doth  the  Son  seem  to  have  revealed  him  to  any  other 
than  to  the  apostles,  whom  he  sent  to  preach  that,  namely, 
which  he  had  revealed  to  them.  Now,  what  they  did  preach 
—  that  is,  what  Christ  did  reveal  unto  them,  I  will  also  here 
rule,  must  be  proved  in  no  other  way  than  by  those  same  churches 
which  the  apostles  themselves  founded;  themselves,  I  say,  by 
preaching  to  them  as  well  viva  voce  (as  men  say)  as  after- 
ward by  epistles." 

"  If  these  things  be  so,  it  becomes  at  once  manifest  that  the 
doctrine  which  agrees  with  these  apostolic  churches —  the  wombs 
and  originals  of  the  faith  —  must  be  accounted  as  the  truth : 
as,    without    doubt,    containing   that   which    the 
churches  have  received  from  the  apostles,  the  apos-        ,     ' . 

*■  ^  doctrine. 

ties  from  Christ,  Christ  from  God ;  and  that  all 
other  doctrine  must  be  judged  at  once  to  be  false  which  is 
opposed  to  that  of  the  churches,  of  the  apostles,  of  Christ,  and 
of  God.  It  remaineth,  therefore,  that  we  show  whether  this 
our  doctrine,  the  rule  of  which  we  have  above  declared,  be 
derived  from  the  tradition  of  the  apostles,  and  from  this  very 


36  THE     DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

fact,  whether  the  other  doctrines  come  of  falsehood.  We 
have  communion  with  the  apostoHc  churches  because  we  have 
no  doctrine  differing  from  them.  This  is  evidence  of  truth." 
[Id.  xxi.) 

"  But  if  there  be  any  heresies  which  venture  to  plant  them- 
selves in  the  midst  of  the  age  of  the  apostles,  that  they  may 
therefore  be  thought  to  be  handed  down  from  the  apostles, 
because  they  existed  under  the  apostles,  we  may  say :  Let 
them  show  the  origin  of  their  churches ;  let  them  trace  the 
succession  (unfold  the  roll)  of  their  bishops  so  coming  down 
from  the  beginning,  that  their  first  bishop  had  for  his  author 
and  predecessor  (aitctorcm  et  antcccssorcni) — some  one  of  the 
apostles,  or  of  apostolic  men  who  always  continued  steadfast 
in  the  apostles'  doctrine.  For  it  is  in  this  manner  that  the 
apostolic  churches  show  their  origin  (or  bring  down  their 
register  —  census)  \  as  the  Church  of  the  Smyrnaeans  traces 
its  bishops  in  an  unbroken  line  from  Polycarp,  who  was  placed 
there  by  John  ;  and  as  that  of  the  Romans  from  Clement,  who 
in  like  manner  was  ordained  by  Peter.  In  the  very  same  way 
can  all  the  other  churches  point  out  those  who  were  ordained 
by  the  apostles  to  the  episcopate  among  them,  for  the  trans- 
mission of  the  apostolic  teaching. 

"Let  the  heretics  invent  something  of  the  same  sort;  for, 
after  blasphemy,  what  is  withholden  from  them  ?  But  even 
though  they  invent  it,  they  will  not  advance  a  single  step ;  for 
their  doctrine,  when  compared  with  that  of  the  apostles,  will 
of  itself  declare,  by  the  difference  and  contrariety  between 
them,  that  it  had  neither  any  apostle  for  its  author,  nor  any 
apostolic  man  ;  because,  as  the  apostles  would  not  have  taught 
things  differing  from  each  other,  so  neither  would  apostolic 
men  have  set  forth  things  contrary  to  the  apostles,  unless  those 
who  learned  from  apostles  preached  a  different  doctrine. 

"  To  this  test,  then,  they  will  be  challenged  by  those  churches 
which,  although  they  can  bring  forward  as  their  author  [aiic- 
torem)  no  one  of  the  apostles  or  of  apostolic  men,  as  being  of 
much  later  date,  and,  indeed,  being  founded  daily,  nevertheless 


UNIVERSAL    PRIESTHOOD.  3/ 

since  they  agree  in  the  same  faith,  are,  by  reason  of  their  con- 
sang  uiiiity  in  doctrine,  counted  not  the  less  apostolical. 

"  So  let  all  heresies,  when  challenged  by  our  churches  to 
both  these  tests,  prove  themselves  apostolical  in  whatever  way 
they  think  themselves  so  to  be.  But  in  truth  they  neither  are 
so,  nor  can  prove  themselves  to  be  what  they  are  not ;  nor  are 
they  received  into  union  and  communion  by  churches  in  any 
way  apostolical ;  and  for  this  reason,  namely,  because  they  are 
in  no  way  apostolical,  (as  is  manifest)  by  the  difference  of  the 
doctrine  ysacranienti — the  whole  sacred  truth)  which  they 
teach."  (^Id.  xxxii.) 

Quite  parallel  with  the  disputed  passage  in  Irenaeus  con- 
cerning the  necessity  of  agreement  with  the  apos- 
tolic Church  at  Rome,  and  happily  illustrating  it,    ^p^^^^"' 

,-,,        .  i.TTTii  •  with  Irenjeus. 

IS  the  lollowmg:  Would  you  exercise  your  curi- 
osity to  better  purpose  in  the  business  of  your  salvation,  run 
through  the  apostolic  churches,  in  which  the  very  seats  in  which 
the  apostles  sat  are  now  filled  ;  where  their  authentic  epistles 
are  read,  conveying  the  sound  of  their  voices  and  the  repre- 
sentation of  their  persons.  Is  Achaia  near  you  ?  You  have 
Corinth.  If  you  are  not  far  from  Macedonia,  you  have  Phi- 
LiPPi ;  yo2c  have  the  Thessalonians.  If  you  can  pass  over  to 
Asia,  you  have  Ephesus  ;  but  if  you  are  near  Italy,  you  have 
Rome,  whence  we  can  also  have  the  authority  at  hand.  Happy 
Church  !  to  which  the  apostles  poured  forth  all  their  doctrine 
with  their  blood  ;  where  Peter  had  a  like  passion  with  the  Lord  ; 
where  Paul  hath  for  his  crown  the  same  death  with  John  ; 
where  the  apostle  John  was  plunged  into  boiling  oil,  and  suf- 
fered nothing,  and  was  afterward  banished  to  an  island."  [Id. 
xxxvi.) 

On  the  subject  of  the  universal  priesthood,  and  the  question 
of  the  peculiar  functions  of  the  clergy,  Tertullian,  still  in  com- 
munion with    the   Catholic   Church,  writes :  "  It  remains  for 
me  to  give   an   admonition   also   concerning  the 
right  rule  of  giving  and  receiving  baptism.     The       .    ,      , 
right  of  giving  it,  indeed,  is  vested  in  the  chief  priest 
{sunintus  sacerdos),  who  is  the  bishop;  then  the  presbyters  and 


38  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

deacons;  yet  not  without  the  authority  of  the  bishop,  on 
account  of  the  honor  of  the  Church,  the  maintenance  of  the 
Church's  peace  depending  on  the  maintenance  of  the  bishop's 
authority.  Beside  these,  laymen  also  have  the  right ;  for  that 
which  is  equally  received  may  be  equally  given.  Unless 
bishops  or  priests,  or  deacons,  be  on  the  spot,  disciples  are 
called  (to  baptize).  The  word  of  the  Lord  ought  not  to  be 
hidden  by  any ;  wherefore  baptism,  which  is  equally  derived 
from  God,  may  be  administered  by  all.  But  how  much  more 
is  the  discipline  of  reverence  and  modesty  incumbent  on  lay- 
men—  seeing  that  these  (powers)  belong  (strictly)  to  their 
superiors  —  lest  they  assume  to  themselves  the  specific  func- 
tion of  the  bishop.  Emulation  of  the  episcopal  office  is  the 
mother  of  schisms.  The  most  holy  apostle  has  said  that  'all 
things  are  lawful,  but  not  all  expedient'  Let  it  suffice  in 
cases  of  necessity  to  avail  yourself  (of  the  right  to  baptize),  if 
at  any  time  circumstance  either  of  place  or  of  time,  or  of 
person,  compels  you  (so  to  do)."     {De  Bapt.  xvii.) 

After  his  conversion  to  Montanism,  Tertullian  writes  in  a 
strain  somewhat  different:  "Are  not  all  Christians  priests? 
The  distinction  between  the  clergy  and  laity  has  been  estab- 
lished by  the  authority  of  the  Church,  and  for  its  honor,  which 
derives  sanctity  from  the  assembled  clergy.  In  places  where 
there  are  no  clergy,  any  single  Christian  may  exercise  the 
functions  of  the  priesthood  —  may  celebrate  the  eucharist  and 
baptize.  But  where  three,  though  laymen,  are  gathered  together, 
there  is  a  church.  If,  then,  you  possess  within  yourself  the 
right  of  the  priesthood,  to  be  exercised  in  cases  of  necessity, 
you  ought  also  to  practise  the  discipline  incumbent  on  the 
priesthood,  whose  rites  it  may  become  necessary  for  you  (in 
cases  of  emergency)  to  exercise."  {De  Exhort.  Cast,  vii.)  The 
distinction  between  the  clergy  and  laity,  which  Tertullian, 
on  the  strength  of  this  passage  among  others,  is  alleged  to 
have  ignored  or  denied,  is,  on  the  contrary,  it  will  have  been 
perceived,  here  broadly  drawn. 

In  referring  the  distinction  to  "the  authority  of  the  Church," 
Tertullian  evidently  means  to  say  that  it  may  be  traced  to  the 


BISHOP    OF     ROME.  39 

apostles,  the  founders  of  the  Church ;  appealing,  as  he  con- 
stantly does,  for  the  settlement  of  a  disputed  point  of  doctrine 
or  discipline,  to  the  faith  or  practice  of  the  churches  founded 
by  the  apostles,  in  which  the  apostolic  traditions  were  faith- 
fully preserved. 

Of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  Tertullian,  writing  as  a  Montanist, 
uses  this  remarkable  language  :  "  I  hear  that  an  edict,  and  that 
a  peremptory  one,  has  been  set  forth.  The  Pontifcx  Maximiis, 
forsooth,  the  Bishop  of  bishops,  says  :  *  I  forg-ive  „. , 

.      '  J  •         \    ^       '        '  t  1       I^ishop  of  Rome. 

the  sms  ot  moechia  and  jormcatio  to  those  who 
have  professed  repentance.' "  {De  Pudicit.  i.)  From  this  pas- 
sage the  inference  seems  plain  that  even  at  this  early  period, 
the  titles  of  "  Supreme  Pontiff"  and  "  Bishop  of  bishops  "  had 
been  assumed  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  While,  as  a  Montanist, 
Tertullian  disputed  the  application  of  the  text,  **  Thou  art  Peter ^ 
etc.,  to  the  apostle  Peter  and  Roman  bishops  as  his  successors 
—  maintaining  that  it  refers  to  Peter  only,  as  a  man  specially 
enlightened  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  to  all  spiritual  men  equally 
with  him  —  before  his  conversion  to  Montanism  his  view  of 
the  passage  is  expressed  in  language  which  almost  anticipates 
the  exposition  of  Cyprian :  "  It  is  to  be  remarked  that  Peter 
was  called  Petra,  Rock  of  the  Church  to  be  built,  received 
the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  the  power  of  loosing 
and  binding  in  heaven  and  on  earth."  {^Dc  Prescript.  Hcer.  xxii.) 


NOTES. 

D. 

"  Ad  hanc  enim  ecclesiam,  proj  ter  potentiorem  principalitatem,  necesse  est 
omnem  convenire  ecclesiam,  hoc  est,  eos  qui  sunt  undique  fideles,  in  qua,  semper 
ab  his,  qui  sunt  undique,  conservata  est  ea  quae  est  ab  apostolis  traditio." 

It  has  been  conjectured  that  the  words  in  the  Greek  text  of  Irenreus  here  XQX\- 
diQveiS. poteiitioretn  prificipalitatem,  were  'iKauoyrtpav  dpxai6rr!ra  —  a  more  mtgust  anti- 
quity—  appropriately  predicated  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  as  the  tirst  founded  in 
the  West,  and  the  only  Western  Church  founded  by  apostles. 

Necesse  est  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  oportet :  the  former  .expresses  a  natural 
necessity — what  is  demanded  by  the  nature  of  the  case  —  what  may  be  assumed 
as  a  matter  of   course;  the  latter  implies  a  moral  necessity  —  an  obligation,  duty. 


40  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

This  confusion  is  involved  in  the  Romanist  interpretation  of  the  passage.  The 
plain  meaning  is:  A  pre-eminence  belongs  to  all  apostolic  churches,  as  having 
been  founded  by  apostles;  to  the  Roman  Church  a  more  important  pre-eminence, 
on  account  of  its  greatness,  its  antiquity,  and  its  having  been  founded  by  the  two 
most  distinguished  apostles.  In  view  of  this,  its  more  important  pre-eminence,  it 
must  needs  be  that  the  churches  in  the  West,  on  eveiy  side  of  it,  which  had  none 
of  them  been  planted  by  an  apostle,  and  were  all  of  later  growth,  should,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  refer  to  it  as  the  mother  church  for  the  settlement  of  all  disputed 
points  of  doctrine  or  discipline.  In  the  absence  of  the  Greek  original,  the  meaning 
of  convenire  is  open  to  dispute.  As  the  equivalent  of  avtifiatniv,  it  means  to  agree 
Avith;  as  rendering  ffuj/tpxeoflai,  to  come  together  in  person.  Neander  attempts  to 
defend  the  latter  interpretation,  with  slight  success.  "  Irenocus  appeals  to  the 
ecclesia  apostolica  in  Rome,  as  the  greatest,  the  oldest,  (which  must  be  doubted,) 
the  universally  known,  the  church  founded  by  the  two  most  illustrious  apostles, 
where  Christians  congregate  from  the  communities  of  the  whole  world,  and  could 
not  fail  to  learn  the  doctrine  taught  by  the  apostles,  .  .  .  On  account  of  the  rank 
which  this  church  maintains  as  the  ecclesia  urbis,  all  churches,  that  is,  believers 
from  all  churches,  must  —  the  'must'  here  lies  in  the  nature  of  the  case  —  come 
together  there;  and  since  now  from  the  beginning,  Christians  from  all  countries 
must  come  together  there,  it  follows  that  the  apostolic  tradition  has  been  preserved 
from  generation  to  generation  by  the  Christians  from  all  countries  of  the  world 
who  are  there  united  together.  Every  deviation  from  it  would  here  fall  immedi- 
ately under  the  observation  of  all."  {^Ilist.  i.  205.) 


CHAPTER  III. 

Justin  Martyr — Unity  of  the  Church  —  Universal  Priesthood  — 
Church-Officers — Order  of  Sunday  vService  —  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
Definition  of  the  Church  —  Exclusiveness  —  Unity  —  Origen  —  Defi- 
nition —  Oneness  —  Apostolicity  —  Holiness  —  Recognitions  of  Clement 
—  EriscopACY  —  Apostolical  Constitutions — The  Baptismal  Symbol. 

THE  writings  of  the  first  Christian  apologist,  Justin 
Martyr,  make  comparatively  slight  mention  of  the 
Church.  Two  or  three  passages  in  the  "  Dialogue  with  Trypho  " 
contain  all  that  has  been  preserved  to  us  of  this 

Father's  views  of  the  nature  of  the  Christian  com-  -^"^  ^"  "^\  ^^' 

1 14-105. 

monwealth.  In  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-fourth 
chapter  he  represents  the  marriages  of  Jacob  as  a  figure  of  the 
Church  :  "  The  marriages  of  Jacob  were  types  of  that  which 
Christ  was  about  to  accomplish.  .  .  .  Leah  is  your  (the  Jews') 
people  and  synagogue ;  but  Rachel  is  our  Church.  And  for  these, 
and  for  the  servants  in  both,  Christ  even  now  serves  . . .  having 
come  to  restore  both  the  free  sons  and  the  servants,  conferring 
the  same  honor  on  all  who  keep  his  commandments.  .  .  .  Jacob 
served  Laban  for  speckled  and  many-spotted  sheep  ;  and  Christ 
served,  even  to  the  slavery  of  the  cross,  for  the  various  and 
many-formed  races  of  mankind,  acquiring  them  by  the  blood 
and  mystery  of  the  cross.  Leah  was  weak-eyed  ;  for  the  e\'es 
of  your  (Jews')  souls  are  excessively  weak.  Rachel  stole  the 
gods  of  Laban,  and  has  hid  them  to  this  day;  and  we  (Gen- 
tiles) have  lost  our  paternal  and  material  gods.  Jacob  was 
hated  for  all  time  by  his  brother ;  and  we  now,  and  our  Lord 
himself,  are  hated  by  you  and  by  all  men,  though  we  are 
brothers  by  nature.  Jacob  was  called  Israel ;  and  Israel  has 
been  demonstrated  to  be  Christ,  who  is  and  is  called  Jesus." 
Justin  describes  the  unity  of  the  Church  as  an  organic  unity; 

41 


42  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

the  faithful  in  Christ  as  one  body  —  a  unity  determined  rather 
by  oneness  of  sentiment  and  sympathy  than  by  visible  organ- 
ization.    Thus,  in  explaininj^  Isaiah  liii.   i,  2,  he 
Unity  of  the  .  •        ,  .  .      ,  .  ^  , 

Church  ^^it^s  m  this  mystical  strain:  "Israel  speaks  as 
if  he  were  personating  the  apostles,  when  they 
say  to  Christ  that  they  believe  not  in  their  own  report,  but  in 
the  power  of  him  who  sent  them.  And  so  he  says,  *  Lord, 
who  hath  believed  our  report  ?  and  to  whom  is  the  arm  of  the 
Lord  revealed  ?  We  have  preached  before  him  as  if  (he  were) 
a  child  —  as  if  a  root  in  a  dry  ground.'  But  when  the  passage 
speaks  as  from  the  lips  of  many,  *  We  have  preached  before 
him,'  and  adds,  'as  if  a  child,'  it  signifies  that  the  wicked  shall 
become  subject  to  him,  and  shall  obey  his  command,  and  that 
all  shall  become  as  one  child.  Such  a  thing  as  you  may 
witness  in  the  body ;  although  the  members  are  enumerated 
as  many,  all  together  are  called  one,  and  are  one  body.  For 
indeed  the  people  ((5>im.oc)  and  Church  (fxxXTjtfia),  though  many 
individuals  in  number,  are,  in  fact,  as  being  one,  called  and 
addressed  by  one  appellation."  (Ixii.) 

In  his  exposition  of  the  forty-fifth  Psalm,  Justin,  moreover, 
asserts  that  part  of  it  is  addressed  to  "  those  who  put  their  trust 
in  him  (Christ),  as  being  one  soul,  and  one  assembly,  and  one 
CluircJi  —  a  Church  which  is  sprung  from  his  name,  and  par- 
takes of  his  name ;  for  we  are  all  called  Christians."  (l.xiii.) 

In  these  passages  the  Church  is  identified  with  the  collective 
body  of  the  faithful. 

Every  Christian,  according  to  Justin,  sustains  the  priestly 

character:  "We,  who  as  one  man  have  trusted  in  God,  the 

Creator  of  the  whole,  through  the  name  of  Jesus,  having  put 

offour  filthy  garments  —  that  is,  our  sins — through 

.    ^,    ',     the  name  of  his  first-born;  havinjr  also  been  in- 
priesthood.  '  =* 

flamed  through  the  word  of  his  calling,  are  the 
true  high-priestly  race  of  God,  as  God  himself  bears  witness, 
saying  that  in  every  place  among  the  nations,  sacrifices,  well- 
pleasing  and  pure,  are  brought  to  him.  But  God  does  not 
accept  sacrifices  from  any  one  unless  through  his  priests." 
(cxvi.) 


CHURCH-OFFICERS.  43 

"Accordingly,  God,  anticipating  all  the  sacrifices  which  we 
offer  through  this  name,  and  which  Jesus  the  Christ  enjoined 
us  to  offer  —  that  is,  the  eucharist  of  the  bread  and  the  cup, 
and  which  are  presented  by  Christians  in  all  places  throughout 
the  world,  bears  witness  that  they  are  well-pleasing  to  him. 
.  .  .  That  prayers  and  thanksgivings,  when  offered  by  worthy 
men,  are  tJie  only  perfect  and  zvell-pleasing  sacrifices  to  God,  I  also 
admit.  For  such  alone  Christians  have  undertaken  to  offer,  and 
in  the  remembrance  effected  by  their  solid  and  liquid  food,  by 
which  the  suffering  of  the  Son  of  God  (or  "God  of  God"), 
which  he  endured,  is  brought  to  mind."  .  .  .  "There  is  not  one 
single  race  of  men,  whether  barbarian  or  Greek,  or  called  by 
any  name  whatever  .  .  .  among  whom  prayers  and  thanks- 
givings are  not  offered  up  to  the  Father . . .  through  the  name 
of  the  crucified  Jesus."  (cxvii.) 

The  only  ministers  of  the  Church  named  by  Justin  are  the 
president  (o  crpostTTwg)  and  the  deacons  (6f  (5ir/xovoi) :  "  On  the  day 
called  the  day  of  the  sun,  all  who  live  in  cities  or  in  the 
country,  gather  together  in  one   place,  and  the 

r   1.U  i.1  i-u  •^-  r   i.1       Church-officers. 

memoirs  oi  the  apostles  or  the  writmgs  of  the 
prophets  are  read  as  long  as  time  permits ;  then,  when  the 
reader  has  ceased,  the  president  verbally  instructs  and  exhorts 
to  the  imitation  of  these  good  things.  Then  we  all  rise  up 
together,  and  send  up  prayers ;  and,  as  we  said  before, 
when  our  prayer  is  ended,  bread  is  brought,  and  wine  and 
water,  and  the  president  sends  up  prayers  in  like  manner,  and 
thanksgivings,  according  to  his  power  {^^^■f\  domixig  aJrw),  and 
the  people  add  aloud,  Amen  ;  and  there  is  a  distribution  to 
each,  and  a  participation  of  that  over  which  thanks  have  been 
given  (the  eucharistic  elements),  and  to  those  who  are  absent  a 
portion  is  sent  by  the  deacons.  And  they  who  are  well  to  do 
and  willing,  give  what  each  thinks  fit;  and  what  is  collected 
is  laid  up  with  the  president,  who  helps  the  orphans  and 
widows,  and  those  who,  through  sickness  or  any  other  cause, 
are  in  want,  and  those  who  are  in  bonds,  and  the  strangers 
sojourning  among  us,  and,  in  a  word,  takes  care  of  all  who  are 
in  need."  (Ixvii.) 


44  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Here,  the  order  of  the  Sunday  service  is,  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures  ;  the  address  of  the  president ;  the  prayer,  at  which 
all  stand,  and  in  which  all  audibly  join,  uniting,  perhaps,  in  a 
form  known  to  all ;  then  the  thanksgiving  uttered,  it  would 
seem,  by  the  president  alone,  either  as  prepared  by  him  for 
the  occasion,  or  extempore,  and  the  people's  Amen;  then  the 
distribution  of  the  bread  and  wine ;  and,  at  a  point  of  the  ser- 
vice not  specified,  a  collection  for  the  poor. 

As  Justin  makes  no  mention  of  the  singing  of  a  hymn  or 
psalm,  which  we  know  from  Pliny's  letter  to  Trajan  to  have 
been  a  regular  part  of  the  service,  his  description  is  not  perhaps 
to  be  taken  as  exact  or  complete.  These  points,  however,  are 
clearly  stated :  the  eucharist  was  celebrated  by  the  primitive 
Christians  every  Lord's  day;  the  prayers  offered  before  com- 
munion were  common  prayers,  in  which  all  the  people  united 
audibly ;  the  eucharistic  or  consecrating  prayer  was  uttered  by 
the  president  alone,  the  people  at  the  close  3.dding  A me?i ;  and 
the  same  officer  alone  addressed  the  congregation. 

Ci.EME'ST  0/ Alexandria  describes  the  Church  as  "the  con- 
gregation of  the  elect  —  the  assembly  of  those 

Clemens      ^evotin^  themselves  to  prayer,  the  body  of  the 
Alexandr.,  ,  .   .  ,  1     ,        ,      •         /-      1  •   1      1 

j.Q_22o       Lord,  the  spiritual  and  holy  choir,  of  which  those 

who    have    the    name    only,  without   the   life   of 
Christ,  are  the  carnal  part."  {Strom,  vii.) 

The  oneness  or  exclusiveness  of  the  Church  Clement  regards 
as  involved  in  its  maternity :  **  The  universal  Father  is  one, 
and  one  is  the  universal  Word  ;  and  the  Holy  Spirit  is  one  and 
the  same  everywhere  ;  and  one  is  the  only  Virgin 
Mother.  I  love  to  call  her  The  Church.  This 
mother,  when  alone,  had  not  milk,  because  alone  she  was  not 
a  woman.  But  she  is  at  once  virgin  and  mother  —  pure  as  a 
virgin,  loving  as  a  mother.  And  calling  her  children  to  her, 
she  nurses  them  with  holy  milk,  viz.,  with  the  Word  for  child- 
hood. Therefore  she  had  not  milk ;  for  the  milk  was  this 
child,  fair  and  comely,  the  body  of  Christ,  which  nourishes  by 
the  Word  the  young  brood  which  the  Lord  himself  brought 
forth  in  the  throes  of  the  flesh,  which  the  Lord  himself  swathed 


OKI  GEN.  45 

in  his  precious  blood.  .  .  .  The  Word  is  all  to  the  child  —  both 
father  and  mother  and  tutor  and  nurse.  *  Eat  my  flesh,'  he 
says,  'and  drink  my  blood.'  "  {Pacdag.  i.  6.) 

On  this  point  —  the  oneness  and  also  the  unity  of  the  Church 
—  Clement's  most  emphatic  utterance  is  the  following  :  —  "It  is 
my  opinion  that  the  true  Church,  that  which  is  really  ancient, 
is  one;  and  that  in  it  those  who,  according  to  God's  purpose, 
are  just,  are  enrolled.  For  on  the  very  ground  that  God  is 
one,  and  the  Lord  one,  that  which  is  in  the  highest  degree 
honorable  is  lauded  in  consequence  of  its  singleness,  being  an 
imitation  of  the  One  First  Principle.  In  the  nature  of  the 
One,  then,  is  associated  in  a  joint  heritage  the  One  Church 
which  they  (heretics)  strive  to  cast  asunder  into  many  sects. 
Therefore,  in  substance  and  idea,  in  origin,  in  pre-eminence, 
we  say  that  the  ancient  and  Catholic  Church  is  alone,  col- 
lecting, as  it  does,  into  the  unity  of  the  one  faith  —  which 
results  from  the  peculiar  Testaments,  or,  rather,  the  one  Tes- 
tament in  different  times  by  the  will  of  the  one  God,  through 
one  Lord  —  those  already  ordained,  whom  God  predestinated, 
knowing  before  the  foundation  of  the  world  that  they  would 
be  righteous. 

"But  the  pre-eminence  of  the  Church,  as  the  principle  of 
union,  is  in  its  oneness,  in  this  surpassing  all  else,  and  having 
nothing  like  or  equal  to  itself"  [Strom,  vii.  17.) 

In  this  assertion  of  the  Church's  exclusiveness  is  plainly 
involved  that  view  of  the  Church  Universal  which  identifies  it 
with  the  collective  body  of  all  the  truly  faithful  of  all  ages, 
past,  present,  and  to  come. 

Origen  professes   to   derive   his  definition   of  the   Church 
directly  from  the  Holy  Scripture  :  *'  The  divine  ora- 
cles describe  the  whole  Church  of  God  as  the  Body     ,35^^,.^ 
of  Christ,  animated  by  the  Son  of  God,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Body  being  all  who  believe  in  him."  {Cont.  Cels.  vi.) 

Like  his  master,  Clement,  he  emphasizes  the  oneness  of  the 
Church,  out  of  which  there  is  no  salvation  ;  and  with  him,  also 
draws  a  clear  line  of  distinction  between  the  true  Church  and 
the  false:  "The  Church  is  illuminated  by  the  light  of  Christ, 


4-6  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

who  is  himself  the  true  Light ;  and,  as  thus  illuminated,  the 

Church  is  itself  made  the  light  of  the  world.     It  is  they  who 

have  neither  spot  nor  wrinkle,  nor  any  such  thing;, 

Oneness.  ,  .        ^   ,  ^,  ,    ,. 

who  constitute  the  true  Church. 
Insisting  upon  the  attribute  of  apostolicity^  Origen  describes 
the  body  of  Christ  in   its   earthly  being,   as  "the   heavenly 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  according  to  the  succession  of  the 

apostles,"  {Dc  Princip.  iv.  g,)  and  says :  "  Seeing- 

Apostolicity.     ^  '      ^  ,,.11,,,  •    . 

there  are  many  who  thmk  they  hold  the  opmions 
of  Christ,  and  yet  some  of  these  think  differently  from  their 
predecessors,  yet  as  the  teaching  of  the  Church,  transmitted 
in  orderly  succession  from  the  apostles,  and  remaining  in  the 
churches  to  the  present  day,  is  still  preserved,  that  alone  is  to 
be  accepted  as  truth  which  differs  in  no  respect  from  ecclesi- 
astical and  apostolical  tradition."  {Id.,  Proem,  ii.) 

Origen  is  the  first  of  the  Fathers  to  give  distinct  expression 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  Holiness  of  the  Church.  His  statements 
on  this  point  are  more  clear  and  full,  if  not  more  satisfactor}^ 

than  any  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of  his  prede- 

Iloliness.  '       ^      ,.     .  .   .  ,     .  , 

cessors.  He  distmguishes  two  coexistmg  elements 
in  the  Church  visible,  viz.,  its  essentially  constituent  elements, 
composing  the  Church  strictly  so  called  (x-^oiwj  exxXyjo-ja),  and  the 
elements  adhering  to  it  externally  only,  and  hence  also  in  a 
merely  casual  manner.  To  the  former,  constituting  the  true 
substance  of  the  Church  visible  —  the  Church  properly  so 
called — and  to  it  alone,  he  ascribes  the  property  of  Holiness  ; 
and  this  in  the  full  sense  of  the  Scriptural  expression  — perfect 
Holiness.  Only  he,  therefore,  who  is  perfectly  holy,  according 
to  Origen,  belongs  to  the  Church  properly  so  called.  His 
words  are  these:  "There  is  a  difference  between  the  Church 
and  the  synagogue  —  the  Church,  I  mean,  strictly  so  called, 
not  having  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing,  but  holy  and 
blameless."  {De  Orat.  xx.)  "  If  we  consider  that  every  sin 
which  leads  to  Hades  is  a  gate  of  Hades,  we  shall  comprehend 
how  it  is  that  the  soul  which  has  spot  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such 
thing,  and  by  reason  of  evil  is  neither  holy  nor  blameless,  is 
not  a  rock  upon  which  Christ  builds,  nor  a  church,  nor  a  part 


THE    RECOGNITIONS.  47 

of  a  church,  which  Christ  builds  upon  the  rock.  But  if  any 
one,  in  reply  to  this,  would  shame  us  by  referring  to  the  multi- 
tudes in  the  Church  who  are  supposed  to  believe,  let  him  be 
told  not  only  that  'many  are  called,  but  few  chosen ;'  but  also 
that  which  was  spoken  by  the  Saviour  to  those  coming  to  him  : 
'Strive  to  enter  in" at  the  strait  gate,  for  many,  I  say  unto  you, 
shall  seek  to  enter  in  through  the  strait  gate,  and  shall  not  be 
able.  Strait  is  the  gate  and  narrow  is  the  way  that  leadeth 
unto  life,  and  few  there  be  that  find  it.'  Now  these  expres- 
sions, *  many  shall  seek,'  etc.,  refer  to  those  who  boast  that 
they  are  of  tJie  CJuivcli,  but  live  unworthy  lives."  {Com.  in  Matt) 

According  to  this  representation,  strictly  interpreted,  the  only 
ground  upon  which  the  Catholic  Church  can  justly  claim  to  be 
called  Holy,  is  the  sure  and  firmly  grounded  presumption  that 
all  the  elements  in  the  Church  not  properly  belonging  to  it 
will  one  day  be  completely  separated  from  it,  together  with 
the  certain  hope  of  its  future  glorification.  Hence,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at,  as  Rothe  remarks,  that  Origen,  as  Clement  before 
him,  came  very  near  the  idea  of  the  Church  trmmphmit.  Thus, 
addressing  catechumens,  he  says:  "Jesus  draws  you  to  sah^a- 
tion,  gathers  you  into  the  Church  now  upon  earth,  but  if  you 
bring  forth  worthy  fruits,  iiito  the  CJmrch  of  tJic  first-born  which 
are  written  in  heaven."  [Hojn.  vii.  m  Liic.) 

The  Recognitions  of  Clement,  compiled,  probably,  in  the 
first  quarter  of  the  third  century,  (quoted  by  Origen  in  his 
Comment,  on  Genesis,  written  in  a.  d.  231,)  and  the  Clemen- 
tine Homilies  of  the  same  period,  represent  the 
episcopate  as  the  bond  of  union  amon^-  Christians,  „         ^. 

.  °  Recognitions. 

and  the  only  effective  defence  against  the  incur- 
sions of  schism.  They  throughout  describe  particular  churches 
as  properly  organized  only  by  the  headship  of  a  bishop  —  St. 
Peter  being  represented  as  ordaining  one  in  every  church 
planted  by  him;  e.  g.,  in  Cesarea,  Zaccheus,  and  with  him 
"  twelve  presbyters  and  four  deacons."  "  You  ought  to  honor 
your  bishop,"  the  apostle  is  made  to  say,  "as  holding  the 
place  of  Christ,  obeying  him  for  your  salvation,"  etc.,  quite  in 
the  strain  of  the  Ignatian  Epistles.     At  Antioch  he  ordains, 


48  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

as  bishop  over  the  Church,  "  Maro,  and  with  him  twelve  pres- 
byters and  deacons,  charging  them  to  obey  their  bishop  in  all 
things."  {Rccogn.  iii.  6(d\  vi.  15.)  James  appears  as  the  chief 
bishop  of  the  universal  Church,  to  whom  Peter  is  to  give  an 
account  of  all  his  proceedings. 

To  the  same  effect  speak  the  Apostolical  Constitutions 

(about  250) :  "  If  he  that  calleth  one  of  the  laity  raca,  or  fool, 

shall  be  punished  as  doing  injury  to  the  name  of  Christ,  how 

dareth  any  man  speak  aj^ainst  his  bishop,  by  whom 

Apostolical       ,       T         /  ,        TT    ,      o    •   . 

Constitutions.  ^^^^  "^^^^  S^vc  the  Holy  Spirit  among  you  upon 
the  laying  on  of  his  hands."  ..."  By  thy  bishop, 
O  man,  God  adopteth  thee  for  his  child.  Acknowledge,  O 
son,  that  right  hand  which  was  a  mother  to  thee.  Love  him, 
who,  after  God,  is  become  a  father  to  thee,  and  honor  him." 
(ii.  32.)  "By  how  much  more  valuable  the  soul  is  than  the 
body,  so  much  is  the  priestly  office  above  the  kingly;  for  it 
binds  and  looses  those  that  are  worthy  of  punishment  or  of 
remission.  Wherefore  ye  ought  to  love  your  bishop  as  your 
father,  and  fear  him  as  your  king,  and  honor  him  as  your 
lord."  (/c/.  xxxiv.)  "  The  bishop  is  the  minister  of  the  Word, 
the  keeper  of  knowledge,  the  mediator  between  God  and yoit  in 
the  several  parts  of  your  divine  worship.  Next  after  God,  he 
is  your  father,  who  hath  begotten  you  again  to  the  adoption 
of  sons  by  water  and  the  Spirit.  He  is  your  ruler  and  gov- 
ernor, he  is  your  king  and  potentate  ;  he  is,  next  after  God, 
your  earthly  god,  who  hath  a  right  to  be  honored  by  you." 
(/r/.  xxvi.) 

This  compilation  contains  an  early  form  of  the  Christian 

Confession,  or  Baptismal  Symbol,  which  embodies  a  distinct 

recognition  of  the   Holiness   of  the  Church   Catholic  as  an 

article  of  faith,  definin^^  it  as  consisting  essentially 

Early  symbol.    .         ,        .  ,  ...        .,..-,  , 

in  the  inward  purity  of  its  individual  members, 
effected  by  the  indwelling  Spirit.  The  candidate  for  baptism 
declares :  "  I  am  baptized  also  into  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  is, 
the  Comforter,  who  wrought  in  all  the  saints  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world,  but  was  afterward  sent  to  the  apostles  by 
the  Father,  according  to  the  promise  of  our  Saviour  and  Lord, 


EARLY    SYMBOL.  49 

Jesus  Christ,  and,  after  the  apostles,  to  all  who  believe,  in  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church."  {Id.  vii.  41.) 

In  the  Symbol  to  which  Cyprian  repeatedly  refers  —  the 
Creed,  probably,  in  its  primitive  form  —  Holiness  is  expressly 
ascribed  to  the  Church :  "  When  we  say,  I  believe  in  the  life 
everlasting,  and  the  remission  of  sins  through  the  Holy  Church, 
we  understand  that  remission  of  sins  is  not  given  save  in  the 
Church."  {Ep.  Ixx.)  And  again:  speaking  of  the  Novatianists 
as  not  differing  from  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  form  of  the 
baptismal  interrogatory,  he  says :  "  There  is  not  one  law  of 
the  Creed,  nor  the  same  interrogatory  common  to  us  and  to 
schismatics.  For  when  they  say :  Dost  thou  believe  the  remis- 
sion of  sins  and  the  life  everlasting  through  the  Holy  Church  ? 
they  lie  in  their  interrogatory,  since  they  have  not  the  Church." 
{Ep.  Ixxv.) 
4 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Cyprian  —Of  the  Exclusiveness  of  the  Church  —  Unity  of  the  Church  — 
Equality  in  the  Episcopate —  Cyprianic  Theory  —  The  Petri  Cathedra 

—  The  Pre-eminence  of  the  Church  of  Rome  —  The  Primacy  of  Peter — 
The  Powers  of  the  Church  —  The  Christian  Priesthood  —  The  Fun- 
damental Defect  of  the  Cyprianic  Theory  —  The  Montanist  Theory 
of  THE  Church — The  Novatianist  Theory,  in  conflict  with  the  Cy- 
prianic —  Triumph  of  the  Cyprianic  —  Firmilian  at  one  with  Cyprian 

—  Apostolical  Constitutions  —  Optatus  of  Milevis  in  Agreement 
WITH  Cyprian  —  Lactantius  —  Notes. 

THE  writings  of  Cyprian  constitute  an  epoch  in  our 
history,  containing,  as  they  do,  a  full  development  of 
that  theory  of  Church-unity  which  reached  its  culmination  in 
the  Papacy.  Next  to  Augustine,  the  most  influential  of  the 
Fathers  in  forming  the  mind  of  the  Western  Church  on  this 

question,  Cyprian  was  the  first  to  give  expres- 
^^"^^8     ^^^^  ^^  ^^^    views   on  the  subject  in  a  separate 

treatise  —  De  Unitate  Ecdcsice  [No.  4];  and  may 
hence  be  styled  the  Father  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  in  much 
the  same  sense  in  which  we  name  Eusebius  "  the  Father  of 
Ecclesiastical  History."  In  this  tract,  as  also  in  a  number  of 
his  Epistles,  Cyprian's  statements  in  reference  to  the  oneness 
—  the  onelhiess,  or  exclusiveness  of  the  Church  (and  it  is  this, 
mainly,  that  Cyprian  means  to  express  by  the  word  nnity),  are 

of  the  most  emphatic  character.    Thus:  —  "There 

is  but  one  Church,  which,  with  a  fruitful  increase, 
is  spread  abroad  far  and  wide.  As  the  rays  of  the  sun,  though 
many,  issue  from  one  luminary;  as  the  branches  of  a  tree, 
however  numerous,  are  all  sustained  by  one  strength,  based  in 
its  tenacious  root,  and  as  a  multitude  of  rivulets,  fed  from  the 
same  fountain,  are  all  connected  by  the  singleness  of  the 
well-head ;  so  also  the  Church,  shone  over  with  the  light  of 
50 


ONENESS.  51 

the  Lord,  sheds  forth  her  rays  over  the  whole  world ;  yet  it  is 
one  light  that  is  everywhere  diffused,  and  the  body  is  not 
divided.  Her  fruitful .  abundance  spreads  her  branches  over 
the  whole  world.  She  pours  forth,  far  and  wide,  her  copious 
streams,  yet  her  head  is  one,  her  source  is  one.  She  is  one 
mother,  plentiful  in  the  results  of  fruitfulness  :  from  her  womb 
we  are  born,  by  her  milk  we  are  nourished,  by  her  spirit  we 
are  animated.  He  can  no  longer  have  God  for  his  Father, 
who. has  not  the  Church  for  his  mother.  He  cannot  be  a 
martyr  who  is  not  in  the  Church.  Separated  from  the  mater- 
nal womb  he  cannot  breathe:  he  loses  the  substance  of  salva- 
tion." 

No  less  clear  and  emphatic  are  Cyprian's  utterances  in  re- 
gard to  the  Church's  unity  :  —  "  They  are  the  Church  who  are 
a  people  united  to  their  priest  (sacerdoti),  and  a  flock  which 
adheres  to  its  pastor,"  (the  bishop.)  "  The  bishop 
is  in  the  Church,  and  the  Church  in  the  bishop  ;  so 
that  if  any  one  is  not  with  the  bishop,  he  is  not  in  the  Church." 
(Ej).  Ixviii.)  "The  Church,  one  and  Catholic,  is  knit  and  com- 
pacted together  by  the  mutual  adhesion  of  a  cemented  priest- 
hood; as  the  one  Church  has  been  divided  by  Christ  into  many 
members  throughout  the  world,  so  that  the  one  episcopate  is 
everywhere  diffused  by  the  harmonious  multiplicity  of  many 
bishops."  {Ej?.  li.)  "  And  this  unity  we  ought  firmly  to  hold 
and  assert,  especially  those  of  us  that  are  bishops,  that  we  may 
prove  the  episcopate  itself  to  be  one  and  undivided.  Let  no 
one  deceive  the  brotherhood  by  a  falsehood  :  let  no  one  cor- 
rupt the  truth  of  the  faith  by  perfidious  prevarication.  The 
episcopate  is  one,  each  part  of  which  is  held  by  each  indi- 
vidual bishop  without  division  of  the  whole."  {Be  U)iit.  v.)  * 

At  the  same  time  Cyprian  gives  emphatic  expression  to 
the  prevailing  belief,  that  all  bishops  were  equal  in  dignity 
and  power,  each  in  his  own  diocese  being  answerable  to  God 
alone.  Thus,  in  his  allocution  to  the  seventh  council  of  Car- 
thage :     "  It  remains  that  upon  this  question  (the  baptism  of 

*  Note  E. 


52  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH, 

heretics)  each  of  us  (the  eighty-seven  African  bishops)  should 

bring  forward  what  we  think,  judging  no   man,  and  reject- 

ing  no  man  from  the  right  of  communion,  if  he 

Episcopate,  should  think  differently  from  us.  For  neither 
does  any  one  of  us  set  himself  up  as  a  bishop 
of  bishops,  nor  by  tyrannical  terror  does  any  one  compel  his 
colleague  to  the  necessity  of  obedience ;  since  every  bishop, 
according  to  the  aliozva?ice  of  his  liberty  and  power,  has  his  ozun 
proper  right  of  judgment,  and  can  no  more  be  judged  by  another 
than  he  himself  can  judge  another.  But  let  us  all  wait  for  the 
judgment  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  solely  and  alone  has 
the  power  both  of  preferring  us  in  the  government  of  his 
Church,  and  of  judging  us  in  our  conduct  there."  [Scntent. 
Episc.  Ixxxvii.) 

To  the  same  effect  he  writes  successively  to  two  bishops  of 
Rome,  Cornelius  and  Stephen  :  "  As  it  has  been  decreed  by 
all  of  us,  and  is  equally  fair  and  just,  that  the  cause  of  every 
one  should  be  heard  there  where  the  crime  has  been  com- 
mitted; and  a  portion  of  the  flock  has  been  assigned  to 
each  individual  pastor,  which  he  is  to  rule  and  govern,  as 
one  who  must  give  account  to  the  Lord,  it  certainly  behoves 
those  over  whom  we  are  placed  not  to  run  about,  nor  to 
break  up  the  harmonious  agreement  of  the  bishops  with  their 
crafty  and  deceitful  rashness,  but  there  to  plead  their  cause, 
where  they  may  be  able  to  have  both  accusers  and  witnesses 
of  their  offence  ;  unless,  perchance,  the  authority  of  the  bishops 
constituted  in  Africa,  who  have  already  determined  their  cause, 
seems  to  a  few  desperate  and  abandoned  men  to  be  too  little, 
(or  inferior  to  that  of  Rome.)  Already  their  cause  has  been 
heard  and  their  sentence  pronounced ;  nor  is  it  fitting  that  the 
judgment  of  the  priest  should  be  blamed  by  the  levity  of  a 
fickle  and  inconstant  mind,  when  the  Lord  teaches :  '  Let  your 
communication  be,  yea,  yea;  nay,  nay.'"  {Ep.  Iv.  14,  ad  Cor- 
nel^ Thus  to  Cornelius;  afterward  to  Stephen:  "We  know 
that  some  will  not  lay  aside  what  they  have  once  imbibed, 
and  do  not  easily  change  their  purpose ;  but  keeping  fast  the 
bond  of  peace  and  concord   among  their   colleagues,  retain 


PETRI     CATHEDRA.  53 

certain  things  peculiar  to  themselves,  which  have  once  been 
adopted  among  them.  In  which  behalf  we  neither  do  violence 
to,  nor  impose  a  law  upon  any  one,  since  each  prelate  (prai- 
positus)  has,  in  the  administration  of  the  Church,  the  free  ex- 
ercise of  his  own  will,  as  he  shall  give  account  to  the  Lord." 
(i:>.  Ixxi ) 

This  theory  of  Church  unity  is  commonly  designated  the 
Cypriauic,  as  being  supposed  to  claim  Cyprian  for  its  author. 
As  we  have  seen,  however,  it  had  already  been  propounded  by 
Ignatius,  more  than  a  century  before;  while  Cyprian,  in  now 
giving  it  clearer  expression  and   more  complete 
development,  advances  much  beyond  it.    Not  con-       Theory 
tent,  with  Ignatius,  to  rest  in  the  abstract  view  of 
the  unity  of  the  universal  episcopate,  he  seeks  to  behold  that 
unity  visibly  represented  ;  the  abstract  conception  he  would 
fain  contemplate  as  a  concrete  fact ;  and  this  visible  centre 
of  unity  he  readily  finds  in  that  one  of  the  bishops  who  is 
the  occupant,  for  the  time   being,  of  the  episcopal   chair  at 
Rome.     That  chair  Cyprian  is  himself  the  first  to  designate 
the  locum  Petri  (Ep.  Hi.),  and  Pdri  cathedmm  (Ep. 
liv.) ;    at   the   same    time,   however,    designating     Q^ti'^g^ra 
all  bishops  successors  of  Peter:  "the  Church  is 
founded  upon  the  bishops,  and  every  act  of  the  Church  is  con- 
trolled by  these  same  prelates."    {Ep.  xxvi.)     It  might  thus 
appear,  that  while  naming  the  see  of  Rome  the  chair  of  Peter, 
he  yet  held  the  same  opinion  in  regard  to  Peter's  connection 
with  the  Roman  Church  as  that  of  Eusebius,  Rufifinus,  and 
Epiphanius,  viz.,  that,  during  his  stay  at  Rome,  Peter,  in  the 
character  of  apostle,  and    not   of  bishop,   had   the  supreme 
direction  of  the  Church  there.     This  may  be  considered  as 
rendered  doubtful  by  the  fact  that  Cyprian's  contemporary, 
Firmilian,  describes  Stephen,  bishop  of  Rome,  as  **  glorying 
in  the  place  of  his  episcopate,  and  maintaining  that  he  held 
the  succcssiofi  of  Pctcr-y  {Ep.  Cyp.  Ixxv.) 

In  regard  to  the  pre-eminence  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  the 
prevailing  view  in  the  Western  Church  had  already,  as  we 
have  seen,  found  distinct  expression  in  the  writings  of  Iren^eus ; 
and  though  Cyprian  cannot  properly  be  said  to  follow  up  the 


54  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

teachings  of  Irenaeus,  advancing  as  he  does  a  long  way  be- 
yond them,  yet  his  advance  is  manifestly  in  the  same  line  of 
progress.     Thus,  writing  to  Cornelius,  Bishop  of 
Headship  of   j^q^i^    j^g    characterizes  the   Novatian  faction  at 

the  Church      ^  .,  .  .,     ,       .  i    •    n       -i  i 

of  Rome.  Rome  as  guilty  of  an  obstmate  and  mflexible 
pertinacity  in  rejecting  the  bosom  and  the  em- 
brace of  its  root  and  mother','  that  is,  the  Church" of  Rome,  — 
"  the  root  and  womb  of  the  Catholic  Church."  (xli.  i,  xliv.  3.) 

Speaking  of  schism,  he  deduces  its  origin  from  neglect 
of  the  fountain-head  of  truth — the  doctrine  of  our  heav- 
enly Master.  "  There  is  no  need  of  lengthened  discus- 
sion, or  labored  argument.  The  proof  for  faith  is  easy  in 
a  short  summary  of  the  truth.  The  Lord  speaks  to  Peter : 
*  I  say  unto  thee.  Thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will 
build  my  Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail 
against  it.  And  I  will  give  unto  thee  the  keys  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven ;  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on  earth,' 
etc.,  etc.  And  again,  after  His  resurrection.  He  says  to  Him  : 
'  Feed  my  sheep.' 

"  And  although,  after  his  resurrection,  he  invests  all  the 
apostles  with  an  equal  power,  saying  to  them,  *  As  the  Fa- 
ther hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you.  Receive  ye  the  Holy 
Ghost :  whosesoever  sins  ye  remit,'  etc.,  yet  that  He  might  ex- 
hibit (the  principle  of)  unity,  He,  by  his  authority,  so  arranged 
the  origin  of  that  unity  that  it  should  take  its  beginning  from 
one,  (Peter.)  The  other  apostles,  indeed,  were  what  Peter 
was  —  endowed  with  an  equal  share  of  honor  and  power ;  but 
the  beginning  proceeds  from  unity,  [and  the  primacy  is  given 
to  Peter,  in  order  that  it  may  be  shown  that  there  is  one  Church 
and  one  chair.]  *  Does  he,  who  does  not  hold  this  unity  of 
the  Church,  think  that  he  hold^  the  faith  ?  Does  he  who 
strives  against  and  resists  the  Church,  [who  deserts  the  chair 
of  Peter,  upon  whom  the  Church  is  founded,]  *  trust  that  he  is 
in  the  Church,  when  the  blessed  apostle  Paul  also  teaches  the 
same  thing,  and  sets  forth  the  sacrament  of  unity,  saying : 
'  There  is  one  body  and  one  spirit,'  etc."  {De  Unit.  Eccl.  iv.) 

*  The  words  enclosed  in  brackets  are  generally  considered  spurious. 


POWERS    OF    THE    CHURCH.  55 

"  Where,  and  by  whom,  remission  of  sins  in  baptism  is  given 
is  plain.     For  to  Peter  first,  upon  whom  the  Lord  built  the 
Church,  and  from  whom  He  appointed  and  showed  the  origin 
of  unity,  He  gave  that  power,  viz.,  that  whatsoever  he  should 
remit  on  earth,  should  be  remitted  also  in  heaven. 
And  after  his  resurrection,  also.  He  speaks  to  the        ^^^^^v 
apostles,  saying :   '  As  the  Father  hath  sent  me, 
even  so  send  I  you.'"  {E/>.  Ixxii.  7.)    "After  these  things,  they 
(the  schismatics)  yet  dare  —  a  false  bishop  having  been  ap- 
pointed  for  them  by  the  heretics — to  set  sail  and  to  bear 
letters  from  schismatic  and  profane  persons  to  the  chair  of 
Peter  and  to  the  chief  church  zuJicnce  priestly  unity  takes  its 
source y     (^.  liv.  14.)* 

In  view  of  these  utterances,  and  others  of  like  tenor  scat- 
tered through  the  writings  of  Cyprian,  well  might  Moehler 
assert  that,  even  as  early  as  the  third  century,  "  The  Pope 
was  but  waiting  a  summons  to  make  his  appearance."  {Einheit 
in  dcr  Kirche,  p.  247.) 

Our  exposition  of  Cyprian's  doctrine  of  the  Church  would 
be  incomplete  without  some  notice  of  his  teaching  respecting 
its  peculiar  powers  and  prerogatives.  On  this  point  his  theory 
is  identical  with  that  set  forth  in  the  decrees  of  the  Council 
of  Trent,  viz.,  that  the  Church  is  inv^ested' with  all 
the  prerogatives  of  Christ  Himself,  her  Divine  ^^  ^^^^^.  j^ 
Head,  as  prophet,  priest,  and  king,  and,  as  His 
representative  upon  earth,  is  the  repository,  and  even  the 
source,  of  all  grace.  Thus,  in  regard  to  the  communication  of 
saving  grace:  "The  Lord  invites  those  who  thirst  to  come 
and  drink  of  the  living  water  which  flows  from  Him.  Whither, 
then,  is  he  who  thirsts,  to  betake  himself?  To  the  heretics, 
among  whom  there  is  no  fountain  and  no  living  water  at  all  ; 
or  to  the  Church,  which  is  one,  and  is  founded  upon  one  who 
has  received  the  keys  of  it  by  the  Lord's  voice.  It  is  she 
alone  who  holds  and  possesses  all  the  power  of  her  spouse 
and  Lord.  In  her  we  preside ;  for  her  honor  and  unity  we 
fight ;  her  grace,  as  well  as  her  glory,  we  defend  with  faithful 

*  Note  F. 


56  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

devotion,"  (^Ep.  Ixxii.  1 1.)  "  They  who  had  believed  in  Sama- 
ria had  believed  with  a  true  faith ;  and  within,  in  the  Church, 
which  is  one,  and  to  which  alone  it  is  granted  to  bestow 
the  grace  of  baptism  and  to  remit  sins."  i^Id,  9.)  "  It  is  the 
Church  alone  which,  being  united  to  Christ,  spiritually  gene- 
rates sons.  .  .  .  But  as  the  birth  of  Christians  is  in  baptism,  while 
the  generation  and  sanctification  of  baptism  are  with  the 
spouse  of  Christ  alone,  who  is  able  spiritually  to  conceive  and 
bear  sons  to  God,  where,  and  of  whom,  and  to  whom  is  he 
born,  who  is  not  a  son  of  the  Church,  so  as  that  he  should 
have  God  as  his  Father,  before  he  has  had  the  Church  for  his 
mother  ?  "  {Ep.  Ixxiii.  6,  7.)  ''  It  is  manifest  that  they  who  are 
not  in  the  Church  of  Christ  are  reckoned  among  the  dead  ; . . . 
since  there  is  one  Church  which  has  received  the  grace  of 
eternal  life,  which  lives  for  ever,  and  quickens  the  people  of 
God."    {Ep.  Ixx.  I.) 

Now,  in  the  language  of  Cyprian,  the  Church  stands  for  the 
body  of  the  clergy,  or  the  pricstliood,  as  its  representatives  ;  so 
that  with  him,  it  is  in  reality  the  bishops,  and,  as  delegated  by 
them,  the  rest  of  the  clergy,  who  are  the  specific  channels  for 

the    conveyance  of  Divine  grace  to  the  faithful. 
Priesthood.    "  ^"  ^^^^  (Church)  we  (the  bishops)  preside  ;  for  its 

honor  and  unity  we  contend ;  its  grace  and  'glory 
we,  with  faithful  devotion,  defend."  {Ep.  Ixxiii.)  "  In  order 
that  the  water  of  baptism  may  wash  away  sin,  it  is  necessary 
that  it  be  cleansed  and  sanctified  by  the  priest. . . .  But  how 
can  he  cleanse  the  water  who  himself  is  unclean,  and  destitute 
of  the  Spirit  ?  Or  how  can  he,  by  baptism,  convey  to  another 
remission  of  sins,  whose  own  sins,  being  those  of  a  schismatic, 
are  not  remitted?"  {Ep.  Ixx.)  "  Let  each  of  you  confess  his 
sin,  while  confession  is  available  ;  while  satisfaction  and  remis- 
sion effected  through  the  priest  (facta  per  sacerdotes)  are  ac- 
ceptable with  God."  {De  Laps.) 

From  this  analysis  of  Cyprian's  teaching  on  the  subject  of 
the  Church,  it  is  plain  that,  in  its  leading  features,  it  is  not  to 
be  distinguished  from  that  of  the  Roman  Cathechism;  and 
among  the  truths  which  our  review  of  it  brings  forcibly  home 


MONTANISTIC    THEORY.  57 

to  US  not  tlic  least  important  is  this  :  that  the  advocate  of 
primitive  Christianity  can  maintain  his  position  against  the 
Romanist,  solely  on  the  ground  of  the  purely  primitive  tradi- 
tion, in  otJicr  zvords,  the  written  revelation. 

It  scarcely  needs  pointing  out,  moreover,  that  the  funda- 
mental defect  of  Cyprian's  theory  of  the  Church  is  that  which 
Hooker,  in  a  well-known  passage,  designates  as  the 

en  •    1  i.  -1.1         r  1-    1  -  M      •  Fundamental 

source  ot     oversights  neither  tew  nor  lig;ht.    viz..  ,  . 

......  fc»      >  »  defect. 

failure    to    distinguish  between  **  that  Church  of 

Christ  which  we  properly  term  his  body  mystical,"  and  the 

Church  of  Christ  which  is  "  a  sensible  known  company  " — 

"the  Church  visible,"  so  called,  which  is    *' one  in  outward 

profession    of  those    things   which    supernaturally  appertain 

to  the  very  essence  of  Christianity."  {Eccl.  Pol.  iii.  i.) 

In  strong  contrast  with  this,  the  prevailing,  outward  view 
of  the  Church,  was  that  of  the  Montanists  of  this  period;  a 
view  of  which  Tertullian,  after  his  perversion,  is 
the   acknowledged    exponent.     The   Montanistic    *  r^, 
theory  is  stated    by  him  in  these  words  :  "  The 
Church,  in  the  proper  and    pre-eminent    sense,  is  the  Holy 
Spirit  Himself,  in  which   the  Three  are  One  —  and  next  the 
whole  community  of  those  who  are  agreed  in  this  faith  (that 
God  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  are  one)  is 
called  after  its  founder  and  consecrator,  (the  Holy  Spirit,)  the 
Church." 

While  the  prevailing  (Catholic)  view  is  expressed  in  the 
well-known  words  of  Irenaeus  :  Ubi  ccclcsia,  ibi  Spiritus  Dei ;  et 
iibi  Spiritus  Dei,  ibi  ecclesia  — giving  priority  to  the  Church,  and 
thus,  by  this  very  position  of  priority,  making  it  outward  and 
visible;  and  representing  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  con- 
ditioned by,  and  hence  derived  through  this  mediation,  Mon- 
tanism  reverses  the  order :  Ubi  Spiritus,  ibi  ecclesia  ;  et  ubi  ec- 
clesia, ibi  Spiritus;  giving  precedence  to  the  Spirit,  and 
assigning  the  Church  a  secondary  position.  The  operation 
of  the  Spirit,  however,  according  to  the  Montanistic  concep- 
tion, is  not  the  spiritual  illumination  of  believers,  but  a  super- 
natural revelation,  or  extraordinary  inspiration.     The  Church 


58  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

of  the  Montanists  was  thus  a  Church  of  the  Spirit,  consisting 
of  the  spiritual  (spiritales),  or  men  possessed  of  the  Spirit  in 
the  Montanistic  sense. 

While  admitting  the  immutability  of  the  apostolic  doctrine, 
Tertullian  —  the  Montanist  —  maintains  the  changeable  char- 
acter of  all  matters  of  order  and  discipline.  The  power  of 
the  keys,  given  to  Peter,  he  insists,  was  given  to  Peter  person- 
ally, and  —  not  to  his  successors  in  the  episcopate  —  but  to 
those  who,  like  Peter,  were  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Equally  in  contrast  with  the  prevailing  view  of  the  Church, 
.    .      as  set  forth  by  Cyprian,  is  that  of  the  Novatian- 

'  ]  '^  '  ISTS,  viz.,  that  purity  being  one  of  the  essential 
characteristics  of  a  true  Church,  every  church  which 
fails  to  exercise  due  church  discipline,  by  excluding  from  its 
communion  such  persons  as  by  gross  sins  have  broken  their 
baptismal  vow,  ceases,  by  that  very  act,  to  be  a  true  Christian 
Church. 

The  fundamental  error  of  the  Novatianists — the  Puritans  of 
the  third  century  —  as  Neander  has  pointed  out,  was  the  same 
as  that  of  their  opponents.  It  consisted  in  confounding  the 
mystical  body  of  Christ  with  the  outward  visible  organization. 
"  Transferring  the  predicate  of  unspotted  holiness,  which  be- 
longs to  the  former  —  the  community  of  saints  as  such  —  to 
the  visible  form  in  which  that  community  becomes  apparent, 
the  Novatianists  drew  the  conclusion  that  every  society  of 
Christians  which  tolerates  in  its  communion  the  impure,  ceases 
to  be  a  true  church."  Thus,  setting  out  from  the  same 
fundamental  principle,  Cyprian  and  Novatian  reached  opposite 
conclusions  ;  the  former,  that  the  Church,  transmitted  and  pro- 
pagated by  the  succession  of  bishops,  is,  as  such,  a  pure  and 
holy  one;  the  latter,  that  only  a  visibly  pure  and  holy  church 
is  a  true  church.  Though  alike  involved  in  the 
Triumph  of  error  of  confounding  the  outward  with  the  in- 
*  %h  o"!"'^  ward,  the  two  opposing  theories  maintained  with 
each  other  an  unequal  conflict;  the  Cyprianic 
speedily  emerging  from  the  contest  as  the  received  Catholic 


APOSTOLICAL    CONSTITUTIONS.  59 

Church  system  ;  the  Novatianist  continuing  to  exist  only  as 
an  insignificant  sect.* 

This  conception  of  the  Church  was  not  confined  to  the  West. 
We  trace  its  prevalence,  at  this  early  period,  also  in  the  East. 
It  is  found  clearly  developed  in  two  independent  documents 
of  Eastern  origin,  and  both  belonging  to  the  middle  of  the 
third  century,  viz.,  the  well-known  Epistle  of  Firmilian,  Bishop 
of  Cassarea  in  Cappadocia,  among  Cyprian's  Epistles,  No.  75, 
and  the  Apostolical  Constitutions,  (the  first  six  books.) 

What  is  known  as  the  Cyprianic  doctrine  of  the  cxcliisivc- 

ncss  of  the  Catholic  Church  visible,  out  of  which  there  is  no 

possibility  of  salvation,  is  expressed  by  Firmilian  in  terms 

the   most  definite  and  forcible.     In  the  Church 

alone,  he  declares,  is  to  be  found  the  efficacious  '   ' 

.  .  .  ^7^- 

operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  of  the  redeeming 

grace  of  Christ.     The  bishops,  and,  in  connection  with  them, 

the  other  clergy,  he  regards  as  the  exclusive  organs  of  the 

communication  of  all  spiritual  blessings.    And  this  is  expressed 

not  merely  as  his  own  individual  opinion,  but  as  the  received 

view  of  a  large  section  of  the  Oriental  Church. 

Not  less  clear  and  strong  is  this  Father's  indorsement  of 
Cyprian's   utterances   in   regard  to  the  7mity  of  the   Church. 
He  indignantly  reprobates  the  course  of  Stephen,  Bishop  of 
Rome,  in  acknowledf^incr  the  validity  of  the  bap- 
tism  01  heretics,  as  a  virtual  betrayal  and  surren-      Cvprian 
der  of  the  Church's  unity.     Freely  conceding  Ste- 
phen's claim  to  the  succession  to  the  Cathedra  Petri,  he  yet 
condemns  his  conduct  in  the  severest  terms,  saying,  in  effect, 
that   while,    as   the    successor   of    Peter,    Stephen    had   been 
divinely  commissioned  to  be  the  peculiar  organ  of  the  main- 
tenance and  promotion  of  ecclesiastical  unity,  he  yet  with  un- 
accountable folly  (stultitia)  pursued  a  course  directly  tending 
to  destroy  it.f 

In  yet  stronger  terms,  if  possible,  speak  \\\^  Apostolical  Con- 
stitutions, representing,  as  they  do,  the  bishop  as  the  organ  of 

*  For  an  exhaustive  exposition  of  the  Cyprianic  theory,  see  RoTHE,  pp.  636-76. 
t  Note  G. 


6o  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

the  Church's  head,  in  communicating,  through  the  imposition 
of  hands,  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  in  his  possession  of  the 
power,  with  God,  of  life  and  death  —  the  power,  that  is  to 
say,  of  condemning  the  sinner  to  eternal  pains,  and  of  remit- 
ting the  penalty  in  behalf  of  the  penitent;  and  in 
Aposto  ica     Yiis  being  a  mediator  between  God  and  men.     The 

Constitutions,  ._,.., 

2S0.         specific  object,  mdeed,  of  the  author  or  authors  of 

the  Constitutions,  appears  plainly  to  have  been  to 

establish  and  confirm  the  prevailing  view  of  the  exclusiveness 

and  unity  of  the  visible  Church  Catholic  —  a  unity  realized  in 

the  collective  episcopate. 

Late  in  the  following  century  appeared  Optatus  of  Milevis, 
in  Numidia,  (375-8,)  the  author  of  a  work  entitled  Dc  ScJiis- 
inate  Donatistarnm,  libri  vii.,  advcrsus  Parmeniamini.  [No.  7.] 
In  the  second  book  of  this  treatise  he  develops 
P!^^^°      the  Cyprianic  theory  of  the  Church  in  a  style  of 
275_8.' ■    marked  originality.     Thus:  *' The  Church  is  one; 
it  possesses   five  essential   properties    (dotes):    i. 
Cathedra  —  The    unity    of  the    episcopate    of   all    individual 
bishops,  having  its  root  in  Peter  as  the  point  of  unity  of  the 
apostolic  college,  and  this  unity  of  the  episcopate  is  to  be  per- 
petually maintained  through   the   Roman   episcopate  as   the 
point  of  unity  of  the  collective  or  universal  Church."     In  the 
union  of  all  bishops  with  the  uninterrupted  succession  of  the 
bishops  of  Rome  from  St.  Peter,  he  finds  the  essential  unity 
of  the  Church :  "  In  Rome,  to  Peter  first  was  given  the  epis- 
copal chair,  in  which  sat  Peter,  the  head  of  all  the  apostles ; 
whence  he  was  also  named  Cephas.     In  this  one  chair  unity 
was  to  be  maintained  by  all." 

Hence,  with  Optatus,  the  Cathedra,  as  the  ehair  of  Peter, 
is  the  ground  of  all  the  other  endowments  of  the  Church, 
(dotes  Ecclesia.)  2.  y4;/^£V//j— The  Bishop  himself.  The  allu- 
sion in  this  appellation  is  not  only  to  the  apocalyptic  angels, 
but  also  to  the  angel  in  John  v.  2.  3.  Spiritus  Sanctus.  4.  Pons 
—  Baptism.  $.  Sigiihnn — The  baptismal  symbol.  All  these, 
the  essential  properties  of  the  Church,  are  conjoined  in  in- 
separable union. 


LACTANTIUS.  6l 

The  fundamental  conception  of  Optatus  is  precisely  one 
with  that  of  Cyprian  :  the  essential  being  of  the  true  Church 
consists  in  its  unity,  which,  on  one  side,  is  a  unity  of  the  apos- 
tolic faith,  as  set  forth  in  the  baptismal  or  Catholic  symbol, 
and  on  the  other  side  is  realized  in  every  particular  church 
through  the  bishop,  who  is  the  specific  organ  of  the  commu- 
nication of  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  means  of  baptism,  and  the 
sacraments  in  general.* 

So  universally  received  was  the  Cyprianic  doctrine  of  the 
exclusiveness  of  the  Church,  at  the  close  of  the  third  century, 
that  even  Lactantius,  though  by  no  means  churchly  in  other 
respects,  and,  with  his  liberal  views  of  Christianity, 
little  disposed  personally  to  press   such  a  point,      '    -    ■     > 
gives  expression  to  it  even  in  its  strictest  form. 
All  who  are  not  in  communion  with  the  one  Catholic  Church 
he  brands   as  "  no  longer  Christians ;  and  the  one  Catholic 
Church  is  that  alone  which  retains  the  true  worship.     This  is 
the  fountain  of  truth,  the  home  of  faith,  the  temple  of  God, 
into  which  he  who  has  not  entered,  or  from  which  he  who  has 
departed,  is  a  stranger  to  the  hope  of  eternal  salvation."  [Inst. 
Div.  iii.  30;  iv.  14.) 


NOTES. 

E. 

Episcopatus  unus  est,  cujus  a  singulis  in  solidum  pars  tenetur.  Other  render- 
ings of  this  important  sentence  rriay  throw  light  upon  its  meaning :  "  The  episco- 
pate is  one,  each  part  of  which  is  held  by  each  for  the  whole."  "  There  is  one 
episcopate,  of  which  each  member  has  an  undivided  share."  "  There  is  one  un- 
divided episcopate,  which  becomes  visible  in  the  person  of  each  individual  bishop." 

Quam  unitatem  firmiter  tenere  et  vindicare  debemus,  maxime  episcopi,  qui  in 
ecclesia  praesidemus,  ut  episcopatum  quoque  ipsum  unum  atque  indivisum  pro- 
bemus.  Nemo  fratemitatem  mendacio  fallat,  nemo  fidei  veritatem  perfida  praevar- 
icatione  corrumpat.  Episcopatus  unus  est,  cujus  a  singulis  in  solidum  pars  tenetur. 
Ecclesia  quoque  una  est,  etc.  {^De  Unit.  Eccl.,  v.) 

^  As  the  An^ehis,  in  the  terminology  of  Optatus,  refers  particularly  to  the  angel 
who  imparted  healing  properties  to  the  pool  of  Bethesda,  (John  v.  4,)  so  the  Fons 
and  Sisrjl/itm  contain  an  allusion  to  the  "  Fountain  sealed "  [Fons  si^'na/us,  in 
the  Vulgate)  in  Solomon's  Song  iv.  12. 


62  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

F. 

Navigcire  audent  et  ad  Petri  cathediani  atque  ad  ecclesiam  principalem,  unde 
unitas  sacerdotalis  exorta  est,  a  schismaticis  et  profanis  literas  ferre.  {£p  lix. 
19,  ed.  Goldhorn.)     The  context  of  this  important  passage  is  as  follows  : 

"  Quibus  etiam  satis  non  fuit,  .  .  .  foris  sibi  extra  ecclesiam  et  contra  ecclesiam 
constituisse  conventiciilum  perditae  factionis,  cum  male  sibi  consciorum  et  Deum 
rogare  ac  satisfacere  nolentium  caterva  conflueret.  Post  ista  adhuc  insuper  pseudo- 
episcopo  sibi  ab  haereticis  constituto  navigare  audent  ad  Petri  cathedram  atque  ad 
ecclesiam  principalem,  unde  unitas  sacerdotalis  exorta  est,  a  schismaticis  et  pro- 
fanis literas  ferre  nee  cogitare,  eos  esse  Romanos,  quorum  fides  apostolo  praedicante 
laudata  est,  ad  quos  pertidia  habere  non  possit  accessum."  [£/>  lix.  19,  e(/.  Gold- 
horn.') 

The  passage  quoted  p.  54,  in  reference  to  the  headship  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
is  as  follows:  "  Miseramus  nuper  collegas  nostros  Caldonium  et  Fortunatum.utnon 
tantum  persuasione  literarum  nostrarum,  sed  praesentia  sua  et  consilio  omnium 
vestrum  eniterentur  quantum  possent  et  elaborarent,  ut  ad  catholicae  ecclesiae 
unitatem  scissi  corporis  membra  componerent  et  Christianae  caritatis  vinculo  copu- 
larent.  Sed  quoniam  diversae  partis  obstinata  et  inflexibilis  pertinacia  non  tantum 
radicis  et  matris  sinum  atque  complexum  recusavit,  sed  etiam  gliscente  et  in  pejus 
recrudescente  discordia  episcopum  sibi  constituit  et  contra  sacramentum  semel 
traditum  divinae  dispositionis  et  catholicae  unitatis  adulterum  et  contrarium  caput 
extra  ecclesiam  fecit,"  etc.  {Ep.  xlv.  i.)  For  the  convenience  of  the  English 
reader,  the  references  in  the  text  are  conformed  to  the  numbering  of  the  Ante-Xi- 
cene  Library  edition. 

G. 

The  genuineness  of  this  Letter,  which  has  come  down  to  us  under  the  name  of 
Firmilian,  (usually  numbered  as' the  seventy-fifth  in  the  collection  of  Cyprian's 
Epistles,)  is  too  well  established  to  require  defence  against  the  cavils  of  the 
papal  advocates,  who  find  it  necessary  to  repudiate  it  at  all  hazards.  The  ground 
of  exception  will  be  apparent  from  the  following  quotations  : —  "  Sed  haec  interim, 
quae  a  Stephano  gesta  sunt,  praetereantur,  ne  dum  audaciae  et  insolentiae  ejus 
meminimus,  de  rebus  ab  eo  improbe  gestis  longiorem  moestitiam  nobis  inferamus. 
.  .  .  Atque  ego  in  hac  parte  juste  indignor  ad  banc  tam  apertam  et  manifeslam 
Stephani  stultitiam  quod  qui  sic  de  Episcopatus  sui  loco  gloriatur,  et  se  successionem 
Petri  tencre  contendit,  super  quem  fundamenta  Ecclesiae  collocata  sunt,  multas 
alias  petras  inducat. — Lites  et  dissensiones  quantas  parasti  (Stephane)  per  ecclesias 
totius  mundi  ?  Peccatum  vero  quam  magnum  tibi  exaggerasti  quando  te  a  tot  gre- 
gibus  scidisti  ?  Excidisti  enim  temetipsum  :  noli  te  fallere.  Si  quidem  ille  est  vere 
schismaticus,  qui  se  a  communione  ecclesiasticae  unitatis  apostatam  fecerit.  Dum 
enim  putas  omnes  a  te  abstineri  posse,  solum  te  ab  omnibus  abstinuisti.  {^Ep.  xliii. 
Ed.  Morcllii.  Par.  1564;  the  yfrj/  ed.  in  which  this  Ep.  is  found.) 


CHAPTER  V. 

Augustine  —  Of  the  Exclusiveness  of  the  Church  —  Unity — Holiness  — 
DoNATisTic  View  —  Catholic  View  —  Settled  by  Augustine  —  In  the 
Church,  not  Of  the  Church  —  Not  Two  Churches  —  Modification  of 
the  Primitive  View  —  Augustinian  View  of  the  True  Church  not 
Identical  with  the  Protestant  Doctrine  of  the  Invisible  Church  — 
Theory  of  Tichonius  —  "  The  Communion  of  Saints  "  first  inserted  in 
THE  African  Symbol  —  Lord  King's  Explanation. 

THE  views  of  Augustine,  in  regard  to  the  nature  and  consti- 
tution of  the  Church,  were  fully  developed  in  the  course  of 
his  long  conflict  with  the  Pelagians,  the  Manicheans,  and  the 
Donatists.  In  all  its  essential  features,  his  theory  is  not  to  be 
distinguished  from  that  of  Cyprian.     In  makins:  it 

,  .  1  1         •  ,  .  T^      ,         Augustine. 

his    own,  however,  he    imparted  to  it,  as    Rothe     ^.,   .,^ 
*  *  ^  '  354-430- 

expresses  it,  "  the    strength  and  richness    of  his 

own  wonderful  intellect,  and  in  virtue  of  his  clear,  scientific 
spirit,  handled  it  with  a  precision  and  keen  logical  method 
before  unknown." 

The  doctrine  of  the  oneness,  oneliness,  or  exclusiveness  of  the 
Church  is  exhibited  by  Augustine  as  of  the  first  importance. 
In  the  course  of  the  painful  conflicts  through  which  he  had 
passed  in  the  progress  of  his  religious  experience,  "the  ideai 
of  Christianity  and  the  idea  of  the  Catholic  Church  I 

had,  in  his  consciousness,  become  most  thoroughly  '  onhe  ^^^ 
identified.  The  position  in  which  h&  found  rescue  Church. 
from  the  shipwreck  of  his  inner  Life,  and  to  which  he  convul- 
sively clung  with  all  the  vehemence  of  his  energetic  spirit,  was 
thepiofound  conviction  that  riie  Catholic  Church,  and  that 
alone,  is  an  historical  phenomenon  in  which  the  Christian  spirit 
can  actually  express  and  realize  itself,  and  in  which  he  pos- 
sessed a  lU'ing,  powerful  organism  for  his  activity  —  in  a  word, 

63 


64  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

the  consciousness  of  the  specific  and  exclusive  adaptation  of 
the  Catholic  Church  to  the  Christian  life,  as  the  mould  in  which 
that  life  was  to  be  formed.  In  his  view,  the  Catholic  Church 
stood  forth  as  the  compassionate,  loving  guide  of  erring  man, 
who,  apart  from  her,  must  needs  be  abandoned,  without  hope 
of  deliverance,  to  himself,  fallen  and  isolated  in  his  selfishness  ; 
as  the  never-failing  fountain  from  which  alone  divine  grace 
and  vital  force  are  derived ;  as  the  truly  divine  community 
upon  earth,  in  which  alone  there  is  a  true  life  of  holy  love  ; 
and  as  the  paternal  home  in  which  each  one,  according  to  his 
individual  need,  finds  sympathy  and  faithful  care  for  his  infirm- 
ities, and,  at  the  same  time,  an  adequate  theatre  for  his  Chris- 
tian activity.*  All  these  images  are  for  him,  as  they  had 
already  been  for  Cyprian,  fused  and  embodied  in  the  one  gen- 
eral conception  of  the  maternity  of  the  Catholic  Church,  a  con- 
ception to  which  he  imparted  all  the  fervor  and  tenderness  of 
a  nature  of  profound  sensibility.  In  this  idea  of  the  Church's 
maternity  is  expressed  his  view  of  its  cxclusiveness.  Christ 
and  the  Catholic  Church  are  with  him  one  and  the  same ;  his 
life  is  its  life ;  and,  separate  from  its  communjon,  communion 
with  Christ  is  impossible.  {De  Unit.  Eccl.  6,  7,  49.)  Hence  it 
is  in  the  Catholic  Church  alone  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  to  be 
received ;  for  in  her  alone  lives  the  Spirit  of  Love.  The  really 
good  cannot  separate  themselves  from  the  Church  ;  separation 
can  spring  only  from  evil  motives,  and  involves  the  loss  of 
salvation.  *  No  man  can  be  saved  who  is  not  in  union  with 
Christ,  the  Head  ;  and  no  man  can  be  in  union  with  Christ  who 
is  not  in  his  body  —  the  Church.'  "  * 

How  firmly  Augustine  held  to  the  doctrine  of  the  cxclusive- 
ness of  the  Church  is  further  shown  in  the  clearest  light  by 
his  apparent  denial  of  it,  as  involved  in  his  recognition  of  the 
v^alidity  of  Donati§tic  baptism.  With  the  Church  Catholic 
Augustine  maintained  the  lawfulness  of  baptism  administered 
by  heretics  and  schismatics ;  a/id  yet  he  would  not  in  the  least 
recede  from  the  strictest  view  of  the  cxclusiveness  of  the  Cath- 
olic Church.     To  preserve  his_c_onsis ten cy  he  invented  a  lim- 

*  Anfangc,  pp.  680  sq.    Note  96. 


UNITY,  65 

itation,  which  found  a  certain  basis  in  his  idea  that  the  Spirit 
of  Love  abode  in  the  Cathohc  Church  alone.  While  conced- 
ing  that  the  baptism  of  the  Donatists  was  true  and  valid,  he 
yeflTTaTntamcd  that  it  could  not  lead  to  salvation,  if  the  sub- 
"^jecTof  it  should  not  afterward  enter  into  communion  with  the 
Catholic  Church;  and  that  without  this,  such  baptism,  so  far 
from  availing  to  salv-ation,  would  only  increase  condemnation: 
"^i^fTc  Unico  Bapt.  §  8.)  Thus,  while  on  the  one  side  the  exclu- 
siveness  of  the  Church  is  thrown  into  the  shade,  on  the  other 
it  is  carried  to  the  highest  possible  point. 

So,  also,  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Church's  unity,  Augustine's 
view  was  strictly  conformed  to  that  of  Cyprian:  The  unity  of 
the    episcopate    is    the  basis  of  the    unity  of  the 
Church  Catholic ;  and  in  the  chair  of  Peter,  that 
is,  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  as  its  organic  point  of  union  and 
communion,  that  unity  of  the  episcopate  finds  its  realization. 

By  means  of  its  living  reproduction  in  the  person  of  Augus- 
tine, the  Cyprianic  conception  of  the  Church  obtained  a  vastly 
augmented  power  over  Christendom,  not  merely  in  that  age, 
but  also,  through  the  powerful  influence  of  Augustine  in  the 
Church  at  large,  over  the  Christendom  of  all  succeeding  cen- 
turies. Augustine's  doctrine  of  the  Church  became,  indeed, 
wellnigh  symbolical.  As  early  as  the  age  of  Fulgentius, 
(478-533,)  the  Augustinian  utterances  on  this  point  are  re- 
peated and  enforced  as  the  doctrine  of  the  universal  Church.* 

The  currency  of  this  theory  throughout  the  Western  Church 
was  the  fruit  of  the  hard-won  victory  of  Augustine  over  the 
opposing  systems  of  the  Pelagians,  the  Manicheans,  and  the 
Donatists.  "  The  Pelagians  were  so  far  unchurchly,"  says 
Hagenbach,  "that,  in  their  abstract  mode  orrookTng  at  things, 
they  considered  only  the  individual  Christian  as  such,  and 
overlooked  the  mysterious  connection  between  the  individual 
and  the  totality  of  believers.  Their  strict  ethical  ideas  led 
necessarily  to  Puritanism;  hence  the  Synod  of  Diospolis  (415) 
blamed  Pelacfius  for  havincr  said:  Ecclcsiam  hie  esse  sine  viaeula 
et ruga  —  'The  Church  upon  earth  is  without  spot  or  wrinkle.'" 

*  Rollic,  Aii/llii^e,  CS4-6. 

5 


66  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

"The  Manichean  Church,"  says  Baur,  "is  in  relation  to  the' 
world  what  the  limited  circle  of  the  elccti  is  in  relation  to  the 
larger  assembly  of  the  ^W//^;r J ;  that  which  is  yet  variously 
divided  and  separated  in  the  latter  has  its  central  point  of  union 
in  the  former."  ..."  By  separating  the  elect  (so  called)  from 
the  rest  of  the  congregation  of  the  faithful  (called  auditores), 
the  Manicheans  gave  countenance  to  the  principle  of  an  Eccle- 
siola  in  Ecclcsia,  while  the  great  body  of  the  Manichean  Church 
itself,  composed  of  auditores  in  connection  with  the  elccti, 
formed,  as  the  one  elect  world  of  light,  a  dualistic  contrast 
with  the  vast  material  mass  of  darkness."  * 

The  doctrin^e^of  the  Do\ATiSTS„  is  essentially,  tha^o f_t he 

NovATiANS  of  the   preceding__centuryj   that   the 

o  iness:  f  ^^^^  Church  is  composed  exclusively  of  real  Chris- 
Donatistic/      .  ,  ^  .  -^  ., 

views,    f    tians,  and,  as  a  pure  community,  must  necessarily 

exclude  all  unworthy  members. 

It  was  in  his  controversy  with  this  body  of  separatists,  that 

Augustine  was  led  fully  to  develop  the  Catholic 

Catholic         ,  .  r    1       ^1  1  TT-  •  1 

view         doctrine  ot  the  Church.     His  statements  in  regard 

to  the  Church's  unity  and  exclusiveness  are,  as  we 

have  seen,  only  a  reproduction  of  the  Ignatian   or   Cyprianic 

theory.     In  reference  to  one  important  point  only  was  therr 

yet  room  for  further  development  —  the  Church- 
Settled  by  , .  r     TT   1'  ^^   -      ■        ,  i  i 

Augustine  •  predicate  ot  Hfilmtr^  ;  and  this  is  thoroughly  dis- 
cussed and  definitively  settled  in  Augustine's  anti- 
Donatist  controversial  treatises.  Chief  among  these  arc 
Epistola  ad  Catholicos^  commonly  known  under  the  title  I'. 
Unitatc  EcclesicB,  Contra  Epistolani  Panneniani,  and  De  Baptism.  , 
Contra  Donatistas.    [Nos.  8-io.] 

The  Donatists  maintained  that  sanctity  or  purity  is  not 
merely  one  essential  attribute  of  the  Church,  but  is  properl\ 
the  fundamental  and  crowning  attribute,  to  which  all  the 
rest  are  subordinate,  and  more  especially  that  of  universality. 
Hence,  they  affirmed  that  a  church,  however  widely  diffused, 
if  polluted  by  unworthy  members  tolerated  in  her  bosom,  is 
not  truly  Catholic ;   but  that  this  title  belongs  only  to  that 

*Hagenb.  Hist.  Doct.  i.  352. 


HOLINESS    OF    THE    CHURCH.  6/ 

church  which  tolerates  no  wickedness  in  her  communi(^n, 
even  though  she  be  hidden  in  the  remotest  corner  of  the 
earth.  While  freely  admitting  that  their  own  church  was  not 
perfectly  pure,  and  that  a  perfectly  pure  church  could  not 
exist  upon  earth,  they  yet  insisted  (and  here  they  were  clearly 
in  the  right)  that  a  distinction  must  be  drawn  between  the 
wicked  members  of  the  Church,  who  are  not  known  as  such, 
and  the  openly  and  notoriously  wicked.  By  her  toleration 
of  the  latter,  the  Church,  they  asserted,  had  lost  the  attribute 
of  Holiness,  and  thus  ceased  to  be  a  church  according  to  its 
proper  idea. 

The  Catholic  Fathers  might  well  point  to  the  article  in  the 
Creed — TJic  Holy  CatJiolic  CJiurch  —  as  unmistakably  expres- 
sive of  her  doctrine  on  this  fundamental  point;  but  the  mere 
assertion  of  the  Holiness  of  the  Church  was  not  enough  ;  it 
was  necessary  to  show  it  as  exemplified  visibly  in  the  exist- 
ing Church.  This  problem,  pressed  upon  his  attention  as  it 
was  by  the  Donatistic  conflict,  Augustine  undertook  to  solve ; 
and  the  result  of  his  ample  discussion  of  the  subject  was  — 
that  Holiness,  as  a  predicate  of  the  Church  Catholic,  which 
had  hitherto  been  a  somewhat  vague  conception,  was  now 
definitively  set  forth  in  a  form  ever  after  generally  received. 

While  Optatus  of  Milevis  had  rested  in  the  statement  that 
the  Holiness  of  the  Church  is  to  be  found,  not  essentially  in 
the  sanctity  of  its  members,  but  only  in  the  fact  of  the  Church's 
being  the  depository  of  the  essential  principles  and  conditions 
of  sanctification,  (the  sacraments  being  considered  the  grand 
means  of  sanctification,)  Augustine  developed  a  view  of  the 
subject  which  is  substantially  that  of  Origen.  He  distin- 
guished between  a  church-membership  which  is  proper  and 
essential,  and  that  which  is  merely  accidental  and  transient, 
and  applied  the  predicate  of  Holiness  exclusively  to  the 
proper  and  essential  membership  —  the  individual  believers 
constituting  the  substance,  the  body  of  the  Church  as  its  real 
members,  denying  that  the  merely  nominal  members  belong 
to  the  Church,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  and  hence 
repudiating  their  claim  to  the  character  of  holiness.      The 


68  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

wicked,  he  asserts,  appear  indeed  to  be  within  the  Church, 
while  in  truth  they  are  outside  of  it. 

**  Omnes  ille  iniqui  Ecclesiam  non  tencnt,  qui  tamen  intus 
videntur,  et  baptismum  dare  et  habere  a  nuUo  nostrum  ne- 
gantur."  {^De  Bapt.  lib.  v.)  "  Malos  —  quos  non  pertinere  ad 
sanctam  Ecclesiam  Dei,  quamvis  intus  esse  videantur."  i^Ib. 
lib.  vi.)  "  Et  multi  tales  (the  openly  wicked)  sunt  in  Sacra- 
mentorum  communione  cum  Ecclesia,  et  tamen  jam  non  sunt 
in  Ecclesia."  [^De  Unit.  Eccl.  §  74.) 

Representing  the  Church  as  the  House  of  the  Lord,  he  de- 
clares that  some  are  in  the  house  in  such  a  sense  that  they 
themselves  constitute  the  house  built  upon  a  rock  ;  others,  on 
the  contrary,  are  in  the  house  in  such  a  sense  that  they  do 
not  beloncr  to  the  structure ;  they  are  in  it  just  as 

/«  the  Church     ,  ,      „°        .         ,  ,  /  x/      r,  ,-7        ••  n 

not  of'w..  ^"^  chaff  IS  in  the  wheat.  \De  Bapt.  lib.  vii.) 
Accordingly  he  distinguishes  in  the  existing  (^phe- 
iiomenal)  Church  a  ti'ite  body  of  Christ —  corpus  Christi  venmi  — 
and  a  feigned  or  mixed  body  of  Christ  —  corpus  Christi  siinula- 
tum,  vel permixtiiDi)  —  the  former  composed  of  true  Christians, 
who  in  the  Church  attain  salvation,  the  latter  consisting  of 
merely  nominal  Christians,  who,  though  they  are  (outwardly) 
in  the  Church,  will  yet  be  finally  lost.  Here  upon  earth  the 
two  classes  of  Christians  are  now  intermingled,  and  no  human 
power  is  competent  to  sever  them  ;  but  in  his  own  time  the 
Redeemer  will  again  appear,  and,  as  infallible  and  omnipo- 
tent Judge,  separate  all  false  Christians  from  the  phenomenal 
Church,  and  restore  it  to  perfect  purity  and  holiness. 

Hence,  in  reply  to  the  cavil  of  the  Donatists,  who  charged 

him  with  making  two  churches,  Augustine  could  well  avail 

himself  of  the  formula :  We  do  not  distinguish  so 

Churches      ^^  ^^   make  two  distinct  churches,  but  only  two 

distinct  states  of  one  and  the  same  Church,  which 

is  now  mortal,  and  as  such  composed  in  part  of  wicked  men, 

but  will  one  day  be  immortal,  and  then  also  perfectly  pure  and 

holy. 

Moreover,  in, connection  with  this  view,  Augustine  held  that 
communion  with  the   Catholic   Church  is  the   indispensable 


MODIFICATION    O  F    P  R  I  M  I  T  I  V  E    VIEW.  (39 

condition  of  participation  in  the  redemption  bestowed  in  Christ; 
while  yet,  in  itself  alone,  such  communion  is  no  adequate 
ground  of  that  participation  :  a  view  perfectly  consistent  with 
the  assumption  that  the  phenomenal  Church  is  essentially  in 
harmony  with  the  idea  of  the  Christian  Church. 

Augustine's  conception  of  the  holiness  of  the  Church,  as 
we  have  explained  it,  is  only  a  modification  of  the  view  held 
from  the  beginning :  a  modification,  according  to  Rothe,  con- 
formed to  the  historical  relations  of  his  age,  and 
havinq;  its  basis  in  the  primitive  view  —  that  the  Modification 
-,„,,.  .  r    °^  primitive 

holiness  of  the  Church  consists,  not  m  a  state  of  ^,5^,^^ 
actual,  entire  sanctification,  but  simply  in  the  char- 
acteristic feature,  that,  as  a  community  of  saints,  it  is  now  un- 
dergoing an  infallibly  efficient  process  of  purification.  "  In 
describing  the  Church,"  writes  Augustine,  "as  not  having  spot 
or  zurhiklc,  I  do  not  mean  to  describe  it  as  it  now  is,  but  as  it 
is  now  being  prepared  to  be,  when  it  shall  hereafter  appear 
as  also  a  glorious  Church.  For  now,  by  reason  of  the  faults 
and  infirmities  of  its  members,  the  whole  Church  has  to  pray 
daily:  '  Forgive  us  our  debts! ''  (Retract.  \\.  18.) 

It  was  merely  as  to  the  progressive  character  of  that  process 
of  purification  that  Augustine's  views  differed  from  those  of 
the  earlier  Fathers.  Hitherto  that  process  had  been  conceived 
of  as  continuous,  carried  forward  from  an  inner  necessity,  in 
the  conviction  that  the  proper  life-process  of  the  Church  is,  in 
its  nature,  essentially  such  a  constant  purifying  process.  Ac- 
cording to  this  view,  the  attribute  of  holiness,  in  the  strictest 
sense  of  the  term,  belongs  to  the  Church.  But  such  a  view 
of  the  process  of  purification  is  indisputably  in  conflict  with 
experience.  Hence  Augustine  asserted  the  reality  of  an  effec- 
tive process  of  purification  ever  going  forward  witJi  the  Church  ; 
but  instead  of  viewing  it  as  immanent  in  the  Church  itself,  and, 
as  such,  going  forward  in  it,  he  viewed  it  only  as  going  for- 
ward i}i  connection  zvith  the  Church.  He  conceived  of  it,  more- 
over, as  an  act  of  Christ  or  God,  not,  however,  as  an  act  of 
Christ  animating  the  Church,  immanent  in  it;  that  is  to  say, 
not  as  an  act  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  as  a  critical  act  of  God 


yO  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

external  to  the  Church,  as  an  act  of  Christ  rctimiing  to  judg- 
ment: hence  not  as  a  process  continually  carried  on  to  accom- 
plishment, but  altogether  lying  in  the  future,  and  to  be  initiated 
at  the  end  of  time.  Since,  at  the  close  of  the  earthly  course 
of  time,  God  will  remove  out  of  the  Church  every  element  of 
impurity  —  on  this  ground,  as  Augustine  held,  the  predicate 
of  holiness,  even  now,  belongs  rightfully  to  the  Church.  The 
Church  militant  is  holy  because  the  unfailing  promise  of  the 
Church  triumphant  has  been  given. 

Augustine's  view  of  the  Church  as  the  true  body  of  Christ  is 
not  to  be  confounded  with  the  Protestant  doctrine  of  the  invis- 
ible Church.  The  two  are  similar,  but  not  coincident.  They 
agree  in  the  statement  that  the  phenomenal  Church 

ugus  inian     ,      ^^^  .^  ^^  existincr  Church  which  meets  the 

not  Protestant,   v  ^ 

senses)  is  not  to  be  identified  with  the  true  and 
proper  Church  of  Christ.  They  differ  widely  in  this :  that 
while,  according  to  the  Protestant  view,  the  real  members  of 
the  true  Church  (the  invisible)  are  not  joined  together  in  an 
outward  ecclesiastical  unity,  (being  scattered,  on  the  contrary, 
in  a  multiplicity  of  separate  communities ;)  according  to 
Augustine,  the  case  is  so  far  different  that  membership  in  the 
Church  which  is  externally  one  community  is  the  absolute 
condition  of  membership  in  the  Church  properly  so  called, 
which,  though  not  identical  with  the  former,  is  yet  to  be  found 
exclusively  in  it.  While  the  Protestant  position  in  regard  to 
the  relation  of  the  invisible  Church  to  the  visible  is  expressed 
in  the  well-known  words,  extra  coetum  vocatorum  von  simt 
QU.ERENDI  electi  —  the  members  of  Christ's  body  mystical  are 
not  to  be  sought  for  save  in  the  visible  Church,  the  Augustinian 
is  expressed  by  the  same  sentence  with  the  omission  of  a  sin- 
gle word,  extra  ecctiim  vocatorum  non  sunt  electi — true  Chris- 
tians are  to  be  foimd  only  in  the  visible  Church. 

An  intermediate  position  between  the  Catholic  and  the 
stricter  Donatistic  theory  was  occupied  by  the  grammarian 
TiCHONius,  a  Donatist  of  the  more  liberal  school,  who  distin- 
guished between  two  parts  of  the  body  of  Christ —  Corpus  Do- 
mini bipartitum  —  the  two  constituting,  together,  the  actually 


TIC  HON  I  us.  yi 

existing  or  phenomenal  Church.     The  one  part  is  that  which 
is  composed  of  the  individual  members  of  Christ's  body  dis- 
persed throughout  the  world,  who  by  faith  are  truly  one  with 
Christ,  the  head.     The  other  part  comprehends 
all  who  belong  to  the  Church  by  profession  merely,     ^  ^  ^2 
or  externally;    in   a  word,  the   body   of   merely 
nominal  Christians.     The  two  parts  of  the  one  visible  body 
are  nowhere  found  disjoined,  but  are  inseparably  connected 
with  each  other  throughout  the  world. 

The  theory  of  Tichonius  is  scarcely  to  be  distinguished  from 
that  of  Augustine.  In  the  Church  he  beheld  t/ie  one  divine 
institute  of  salvation,  connection  with  which  is  necessary  to 
the  attainment  of  eternal  life.  He  found  that  such  a  definition 
of  the  Church  precluded  the  making  of  its  worth  and  effi- 
ciency to  depend  on  the  ethical  character  of  its  members,  and 
that  no  one  in  the  Church  could  be  rendered  impure  and  de- 
prived of  his  hope  of  salvation  through  the  sins  of  other  mem- 
bers of  the  Christian  body.  He  held  that  no  one  coming  over 
from  the  Catholic  Church  to  the  Donatists  should  be  com- 
pelled to  submit  to  rebaptism,  acknowledging  that  the  bap- 
tism performed  in  the  Catholic  Church  was  a  fully  valid  and 
efficacious  sacrament  of  reception  into  tJic  Church  of  Christ. 
Still  he  would  hold  no  communion  with  the  Catholics,  con- 
tinuing true  to  the  Donatists,  whom  he  regarded  as  a  part  of 
the  Christian  Church  contending  upon  principle  for  strictness 
of  morals,  and  which  ought  to  be  maintained  in  its  attitude  of 
separation  and  protest,  both  on  account  of  the  holiness  of  its 
aim  and  the  secularization  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  its  con- 
nection with  the  State.  Having  expressed  his  views  in  a 
treatise  entitled,  De  bcllo  intestino,  and  other  writings,  in  which 
he  cited  the  old  synodal  decrees  of  the  Donatists  in  support 
of  his  opinions,  he  was  attacked  by  Panncnian,  a  Donatist  of 
the  stricter  party,  as  having  surrendered  the  theoretical  and 
historical  foundation  of  Donatism,  and  betrayed  the  cause  he 
professed  to  support.  ( Vogcl,  in  Hcrtzog,  vol.  xvi.) 

So  far,  however,  were  the  defenders  of  the  Church  Catholic 
(so   called,  since  the   time  of  Ignatius,  in  opposition  to  the 


'J2  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

Separatists  of  all  names)  from  surrendering  the  Church's 
claim  to  the  character  of  Sanctity  —  one  of  its  essential  predi- 
cates, as  they  no  less  than  their  opponents  main- 

of  Saints  Gained  —  that  it  was  just  at  this  juncture  that,  in 
opposition  to  the  Donatistic  pretensions,  they  first 
expressly  described  the  Church,  in  the  Creed,  as  the  Coimmi- 
iiionof^kYKY'i.  For  it  is  noticeable  that  this  supplementary 
clause  was  first  incorporated  in  the  African  symbol,  a  fact 
which  seems  to  indicate  that  its  insertion  in  the  Creed  may 
have  been  occasioned  by  the  position  of  the  Catholics  against 
the  Donatists. 

"  The  introduction  of  this  clause,"  says  Lord  King,  "was  oc- 
casioned by  the  Donatists,  who  afifirmed  that  their  own  party, 
though  confined  to  a  small  part  of  Africa,  was  alone  and  ex- 
clusively the  One  Holy  CatJwlic  Church,  all  others  being  with- 
out  its   pale,   having  no    right  to    administer  its 

Comment  ordinances  and  sacraments.  Hence  they  rebap- 
tized  all  who  revolted  to  them  from  the  Catho- 
lic Church,  avowedly  renouncing  all  communion  and  fellowship 
with  every  church  which  was  not  of  their  party.  In  opposi- 
tion to  these  proud  opinions  and  schismatical  practices,  it  is 
very  probable  that  the  Coimminion  of  Saints  was  added  as  an 
explanatory  clause  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church.,  to  signify  that 
though  there  is  but  one  Universal  Church,  yet  the  particular 
churches  and  members  thereof  maintained  a  strict  union  and 
correspondence  with  each  other;  that  whatever  was  regularly 
performed  in  one  church  was  esteemed  valid  by  all  others  ; 
•or,  that  though  the  Universal  Church  was  necessarily  divided 
into  many  particular  churches,  yet  the  Christian  unity  was 
not  thereby  destroyed,  but  was  still  preserved  by  their  re- 
ciprocal agreement  and  communion."  {Hist.  Ap.  Creed.,  pp. 
348-354.) 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Statements  of  Jerome  in  regard  to  the  Origin  of  the  Episcopate — Bishops 
Slccessors  of  the  Apostles  —  Other  Apostles  besides  "the  Twelve" — 
Origin  of  the  Episcopate  —  Equality  of  Bishops  —  Original  Identity 
OF  Bishops  and  Presbyters  —  Jerome  Interpreted  [a)  by  the  Advo- 
cates of  Ministerial  Parity;  (b)  by  the  Upholders  of  a  Threefold 
Order  —  the  "Testimony"  of  Kutychius  (a.  d.  933)  worthless  —  CEcu- 
menical  Councils;  Authority  of;  Augustine's  Theory — Vincent  of 
Lerins — Utility  of  Councils  —  Judgment  of  Gregory  Nazianzen  — 
Canons  and  Decrees  of  General  Councils. 


D 


URING  the  last  three  centuries,  the  statements  of  Jerome 
on    the  question  of  the  primitive  constitu- 

/-    1        ^1     •      •  •     •  1  ^       "  1     .1  Jerome, 

tion  ol  the  Christian  ministry  have  been  made  the     ^^j.  .^o 

subject  of  animated,  often  of  eager  controversy. 

Of  the  numerous  passages  in  his  writings  bear-      Bishops 

ing  on  the  point  I   quote  the   most  important:      r^^^^tl  ^ 

"  I.  Among  us,  bishops  hold  the  place  of  apostles  ; 

among  them  (Montanists),  it  is  the  third  place."  {Ad MarccllunL) 

2.  "  We  know  that  the  apostolical  traditions  were  taken 
out  of  the  Old  Testament,  that  what  Aaron  and  his  sons  and 
Levites  were  in  the  temple,  bishops,  presbyters,  and  deacons 
claim  for  themselves  in  the  Church."  {Ad  Evagriitni.) 

3.  "  On  account  of  his  extraordinary  character  and  incom- 
parable faith,  and  wisdom  of  no  common  kind,  he  (James)  hath 
been  called  the  brother  of  our  Lord,  and  for  that  reason  was 
the  first  to  be  over  that  church  which  was  the  first 

to  believe  in  Christ,  and  to  be  gathered  out  of  the        besides  ^^ 
Jews.     Certain  other  apostles  also  are  called  the      tj^^.  uvelve. 
brethren  of  our  Lord,  as  in  the  Gospel,  *  Go  and 
tell    my  brethren,'   etc.    (John   xx.    17.)  •  •  •  I^^t  besides    the 
Twelve,  certain  other   persons   were  called  apostles  for  this 
reason,    that   all    who   have   seen   the    Lord,    and   afterward 

73 


74  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

preached  Him,  were  called  apostles,  as  it  is  written  to  the  Co- 
rinthians :  'Then  He  was  seen  of  the  eleven,'  etc. . .  .'After  that 
He  was  seen  of  James  ;  then  of  all  the  apostles'  (i  Cor.  xv. 
5-7.)  In  course  of  time  others  also  were  ordained  apostles 
by  those  whom  the  Lord  had  chosen,  as  that  discourse  to 
the  Philippians  declares :  '  Yet  I  supposed  it  necessary  to 
send  to  you  Epaphroditus,  my  brother,  etc.  .  .  .  but  your 
apostle,'  etc.  (ii.  25.)  And  to  the  Corinthians  of  such  it  is 
written  :  '  Or  the  apostles  of  the  churches  in"  the  glory  of 
God.'  (2  Cor.  viii.  23.)  Silas  also  and  Judas  are  named 
apostles  by  the  apostles.  (Acts  xv.)  .  .  .  This  James  was  the 
first  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  surnamed  the  Just."  {Comui.  in  Ep. 
ad  Gal.  i.  19.) 

4.  "  I  hear  that  a  certain  person  has  rushed  into  so  great 
folly  as  to  place  deacons  above  presbyters,  that  is,  above 
bishops.  The  apostle  plainly  teaches  that  presbyters  are  the 
same  as  bishops.  What !  a  server  of  tables  and  widows  to 
puff  himself  up  above  those  at  whose  prayers  is  made  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ !  Dost  thou  seek  authority  ?  Hear  testi- 
mony :  *  Paul  and  Timothy,  etc.  ...  to  all  the  saints  ...  at  Phi- 
lippi,  with  the  bishops  and  deacons.'  (Phil.  i.  i.)  ...  To  the 
priests  of  one  church  Paul  speaks  thus  :  '  Take  heed  therefore 
unto  yourselves,  and  to  all  the  flock  over  the  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  hath  made  you  bishops,*  etc.  (Here  follow  Titus  i.  5-7; 
I  Tim.  iv.  14;   I  Peter  v.  i,  2.) 

"But  that  afterward  one  was  chosen  to  be  over  the  rest  was 

done  to  prevent  schism,  lest  each  one,  drawing  the  Church  of 

Christ  after  him,  should  break  it  up.     For  at  Alexandria  also, 

from  Mark  the  Evangelist  to  the  bishops  Heraclas 

episcopate  ^^^  Dionysius,  the  presbyters  always  called  one 
elected  from  among  themselves,  and  placed  in  a 
higher  rank,  bishop  ;  just  as  an  army  may  constitute  its  general 
(iinperatorein,  rendered  by  Presbyterian  writers,  emperor),  or 
deacons  may  elect  one  of  themselves,  whom  they  may  know 
to  be  diligent,  and  call  him  archdeacon.  For  what  does  a 
bishop  do,  except  in  the  case  of  ordination,  which  a  presbyter 
may  not  do? 


ORIGINAL    IDENTITY   OF    BISHOP   AND    PRESBYTER.       75 

"  Wherever  there  is  a  bishop,  be  it  at  Rome  or  Eugubium,  at 
Constantinople  or  Rhegium,  Alexandria  or  Tanis,  they  are  of 
the  same  merit,  of  the  same  priesthood.  The  power  of  riches 
and  the  meanness  of  poverty  make  not  a  bishop    _      ,. 

,-         t  11  r  .1         Equalily  of 

higher  or  lower,  for  they  are  all  successors  of  the  i^j^j^^ps. 
apostles.  A  presbyter  and  a  bishop  are  titles,  the 
one  of  age,  the  other  of  office.  Whence  there  is  mention,  in 
the  Epistle  to  Titus,  and  to  Timothy,  concerning  the  ordina- 
tion of  abishop'and  a  deacon;  but  there  is  entire  silence  about 
presbyters,  because  in  the  bishop  the  presbyter  is  included." 
(Ad  Evagr) 

"  A  presbyter,  therefore,  is  the  same  as  a  bishop,  and  before 
dissensions  were  introduced  into  religion  by  the  instigation  of 
the  devil,  and  it  was  said  among  the  peoples,  *  I  am  of  Paul,  I 
am  of  Apollos,  and  I  of  Cephas,'  churches  were  ^  .  .    ,  . , 

Original  iden- 

governed  by  a  common  council  of  presbyters.  But  tity  of  bishop 
afterwards,  when  ever}^  one  accounted  those  whom  ^'""^  presbyter. 
he  baptized  as  his  own,  and  not  Christ's,  it  was  decreed  in  the 
whole  world  that  one  chosen  out  of  the  presbytery  should  be 
placed  over  the  rest,  to  whom  the  whole  care  of  the  Church 
should  belong,  that  the  seeds  of  schism  might  be  plucked  up. 
Whoever  thinks  that  there  is  no  proof  from  Scripture,  but  that 
this  is  my  opinion,  that  a  presbyter  and  bishop  are  the  same, 
...  let  him  read  the  words  of  the  apostle  to  the  Philippians, 
etc.  (P/ii/.  i.  I.)  Our  purpose  is  to  show  that,  among  the  an- 
cients, presbyters  were  the  same  as  bishops ;  but  by  degrees 
{panlatiin\  that  the  plants  of  dissension  might  be  rooted  up, 
all  responsibility  was  transferred  to  one  person.  As  the  pres- 
byters, therefore,  know  that  it  is  by  the  custom  of  the  Church 
that  they  are  subjected  to  him  who  is  set  over  them,  so  let  the 
bishops  know  that  they  are  greater  than  presbyters  rather  b}' 
custom  than  by  the  Lord's  express  appointment  (dispositionis 
Dominicse  veritate").  {Conun.  in  Tit.) 

Now,  here,  say  the  advocates  of  ministerial  parity,  we  have 
the  **  testimony  "  of  this  illustrious  Father  to  the  effect  that,  in 
their  original  constitution,  the  churches  were  governed  by  the 
joint  council  of  the  presb}'tery  ;  that  the  elevation  of  one  prcs- 


yd  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

byter  over  the  others  was  a  human  contrivance ;  that  the  first 
bishops  were  made  by  the  presbyters  themselves ;  and,  con- 
sequently, could  neither  have  nor  communicate  any  authority 
above  that  of  presbyters.  "  The  utmost  that  can  be  obtained 
from  the  teaching  of  Jerome,"  say  others,  "  is  that 
.  .  ^     ,  ,.'      a  bishop  or  presbyter  existed,  from  the  time  of 

interpretation.  .  . 

the  apostles,  as  a  primus  inter  pajrs  in  regard  to 
his  brother  presbyters,  and  that  any  distinction  which  he  had 
superior  to  them  was  conferred  upon  him,  notify  any  distinct 
order  of  bishops,  such  as  existed  in  the  time  of  Jerome,  but  by 
his  fellow-presbyters  and  equals."  *  So  Cartwright,  Beza, 
Smectymnuus,  Blondel,  Mason,  Miller,  etc.,  etc. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  advocates  of  episcopacy,  from  Whit- 
gift  down,  find  in  the  utterances  of  Jerome  a  meaning  fully 
accordant  with  their  own  views.  Thus,  in  the  Defence  of  the 
Answer  to  the  Admonition  :  "  Here  a  man  may  reason  thus. 
The  distinction  of  degrees  began  in  the  Church  when  men 
began  to  say,  I  hold  of  Paul,  I  hold  of  Apollo,  etc.  But  this 
was  in  the  apostles'  time,  (i  Cor.  i.)  Therefore  these  distinc- 
tions of  degrees  began  in  the  apostles'  time."  {Trad  v\\\.^  c.  iii.) 

So  also  BiLSON :  "  These  words  of  Jerome  may  be  either 
very  true,  according  to  the  time  that  they  be  referred  unto,  or 
very  false.  If  you  so  construe  Jerome,  that  the  while  the  apos- 
tles lived,  bishops  were  all  one  with  presbyters,  and  had  no 
more  charge  nor  power  in  the  Church  than  presbyters,  you 
make  Jerome  contradict  the  Scriptures,  himself,  and  the  whole 
array  of  all  the  ancient  Fathers  and  apostolic  churches  that 
ever  were  since  Christ's  time ;  for  all  these  affirm  and  prove 
the  contrary.  But  if  you  so  expound  Jerome,  that  the  apos- 
tles for  a  time  suffered  the  presbyters  to  have  equal  power  and 
care  in  guiding  the  Church,  themselves  always  sitting  at  the 
stern  and  holding  the  helves  while  they  were  present  in  those 
parts  of  the  world,  till  by  the  factions  and  divisions  of  so  many 
governors  the  churches  were  almost  rent  in  pieces ;  and  there- 
upon the  apostles,  forced,  did  set  another  order  in  the  Church 
than  was  at  first,  and  with  the  good  liking  of  all  the  churches  — 

*  Harrison,  App.  No.  794. 


EPISCOPAL    INTERPRETATION.  'J  J 

either  troubled  with  contentions,  or  justly  fearing  the  like 
events  in  time  to  come  —  did  commit  each  place  to  one  pas- 
tor, leaving  the  rest  to  consult  and  advise  with  him  for  the 
health  and  peace  of  the  people,  and  by  this  example  taught 
the  whole  Church  what  perpetual  rule  to  observe  after  their 
deaths,  Jerome  saith  as  much  as  I  can  or  do  desire."  [Pcrpct. 
Gov.,  p.  290.) 

Thus  Hooker  :  "  The  drift  and  purpose  of  St.  Jerome's 
speech  doth  plainly  show  what  his  meaning  was ;  for  whereas 
some  did  over  extol  the  office  of  the  deacon  in  the  Church 
of  Rome,  where  deacons  being  grown  great,  through  wealth, 
challenged  place  above  presbyters ;  St.  Jerome,  to  abate  this 
insolency,  diminisheth  by  all  means  the  deacon's  estimation, 
and  lifteth  up  presbyters  as  far  as  possible  the  truth  might 
bear."  Hence  Jerome  "  notes  one  only  circumstance  belong- 
ing to  the  manner"  of  the  bishop's  election  in  the  Church  of 
Alexandria,  which  circumstance  is,  that  in  Alexandria  they 
used  to  choose  their  bishops  altogether  out  of  the  college  of  their 
oivn  presbyters,  and  neither  from  abroad,  nor  out  of  any  other 
inferior  order  of  the  clergy;  whereas  oftentimes  elsewhere  the 
use  was  to  choose  as  well  from  abroad  as  at  home,  as  well  in- 
ferior unto  presbyters  as  presbyters  when  they  saw  occasion. 
This  custom,  saith  he',  the  Church  of  Alexandria  did  always 
keep,  till  in  Heraclas  and  Dionysius  they  began  to  do  other- 
wise. These  two  were  the  very  first  not  chosen  out  of  their 
college  of  presbyters. 

"  Now  whereas  Jerome  doth  term  the  government  of  bishops 
by  restraint  an  apostolical  tradition,"  —  how  is  this  to  be  re- 
conciled with  his  assertion  that  tlic  custom  of  the  CJiurcJi  is  "  to 
be  accounted  its  chiefest  prop  ?  To  this  we  answer.  That 
forasmuch  as  the  whole  body  of  the  Church  hath  power  to 
alter,  with  general  consent,  and  upon  necessary  occasions, 
even  the  positive  laws  of  the  apostles,  if  there  be  no  command 
to  the  contrary,  and  it  manifestly  appears  to  her  that  change 
of  times  have  clearly  taken  away  the  very  reasons  of  God's 
first  institution;  as  by  sundry  examples  may  be  most  clearly 
proved:  what  laws  the  universal   Church  might  change,  and 


yS  THE     DOCTRINE    OF     THE    CHURCH. 

doth  not,  if  they  have  long  continued  without  any  alteration, 
it  seemeth  that  St.  Jerome  ascribeth  the  continuance  of  such 
positive  laws,  though  instituted  by  God  himself,  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Church.  For  they  which  might  abrogate  a  law 
and  do  not,  are  properly  said  to  uphold,  to  establish  it,  and 
to  give  it  being.  The  regiment,  therefore,  whereof  Jerome 
speaketh  being  positive,  and  consequently  not  absolutely  ne- 
cessary, but  of  a  changeable  nature,  because  there  is  no  divine 
voice  which  in  express  words  forbiddeth  it  to  be  changed  ;  he 
might  imagine  both  that  it  came  by  the  apostles  by  very  divine 
appointment,  at  the  first,  and  notwithstanding  be,  after  a  sort, 
said  to  stand  in  force,  rather  by  the  custom  of  the  Church, 
choosing  to  continue  in  it,  than  by  the  necessary  constraint 
of  any  commandment  from  the  word,  requiring  perpetual  con- 
tinuance thereof.  ...  So  that  St.  Jerome's  admonition  is ...  to 
this  effect :  The  ruling  superiority  of  one  bishop  among  many 
presbyters  in  each  church  is  an  order  descended  from  Christ 
to  the  apostles,  who  were  themselves  bishops  at  large,  and 
from  the  apostles  to  those  whom  they  in  their  steads  appointed 
bishops  over  particular  countries  and  cities ;  and  even  from 
those  ancient  times,  universally  established,  thus  many  years 
it  hath  continued  throughout  the  world ;  for  which  cause  pres- 
byters must  not  grudge  to  continue  subject  unto  their  bishops. 
.  .  .  On  the  other  side,  bishops,  albeit  they  may  avouch  with 
conformity  of  truth  that  their  authority  hath  thus  descended 
even  from  the  very  apostles  themselves,  yet  the  absolute  and 
everlasting  continuance  of  it  they  cannot  say  that  any  com- 
mandment of  the  Lord  doth  enjoin  ;  and  therefore  must  ac- 
knowledge that  the  Church  hath  power  by  universal  consent 
upon  urgent  cause  to  take  it  away,  if  thereto  she  be  con- 
strained through  the  proud,  tyrannical,  and  unreformable  deal- 
ings of  her  bishops,  whose  regiment  she  hath  long  delighted 
in,  because  she  hath  found  it  good  and  requisite  to  be  so  gov- 
erned."   (vi.,  V.  6.  8.) 

Bp.  Hall:  "Jerome  saith,  this  was  rather  by  the  'custom' 
of  the  Church,  '  than  by  the  truth  of  the  Lord's  disposition.' 
True,  it  was  by  the  custom  of  the  Church,  but  that   Church 


EPISCOPAL    INTERPRETATION.  79 

was  apostolical  :  not  by  the  Lord's  disposition  immediately  ; 
for  Christ  gave  no  express  rule  for  it;  but  mediately  it  was 
from  Christ,  as  from  his  inspired  apostles."  (Defence^  sec.  vi.) 

To  the  same  effect  Bp.  Stillingfleet,  in  correction  of  earlier 
statements  in  his  Irenicum  :  "  It  is  hard  to  conceive  how  such 
an  alteration  should  happen  without  the  apostles'  act :  for  if 
they  had  left  the  presbyters  in  full  power  of  government,  it  is 
not  to  be  imagined  they  would  so  universally  part  with  it, 
without  being  obliged  thereto  by  those  who  had  authority 
over  them."  [Senn.  at  St.  Pauls?)  As  Bp.  Hall  expresses  it : 
**  What  can  be  more  plain  than  that  Jerome's  *  it  was  decreed 
all  tJie  world  over'  relates  to  apostolic  constitution.  I  would 
fain  know  by  what  power,  besides  apostolical,  such  a  decree 
(that  bishops  should  be  set  up)  could  be  so  soon  and  so  uni- 
versally enacted."  [Ubi  sup.)  To  the  same  effect,  Davenant, 
Detenu,  xlii. 

"Jerome's  design,"  says  Bp.  Hoadley,  "evidently  was  to  say 
all  that  he  thought  true  against  the  distinction  between  bishops 
and  presbyters.  And  yet  in  his  zeal  against  this  distinction, 
he  saith  only  that  there  was  a  time  when  this  distinction  was 
not  in  being ;  but  never  intimates  tJiat  it  luas  not  made  and 
settled  in  the  days  of  the  apostles  themselves  ;  or  that  presbyters 
of  after  ages  altered  the  design  of  the  apostles  after  their  death  ; 
which  single  thing,  if  he  could  have  said  it  with  any  truth, 
must  have  done  his  cause  more  service  than  all  he  hath  alleged ; 
and  therefore  I  conclude  Jie  would  certainly  have  said  it,  and 
endeavored  to  prove  it,  if  he  had  thought  it  true.''  [Defence  of 
Episc.  Ordination) 

According  to  Jerome,  moreover,  episcopacy  by  restraint 
took  its  rise  at  Alexandria  "  from  Mark  the  Evangelist,"  (hence 
in  the  apostolic  age,)  and  he  commemorates  the  custom  of 
the  Alexandrian  Church  at  the  period  named,  as  especially 
noteworthy  on  account  of  its  contrariety' to  that  of  his  own 
age.  Then  and  there  the  college  of  presbyters  always  elected 
the  bishops  out  of  their  own  body.  In  Jerome's  day,  "  the 
choice  was  generally  made  by  the  emperor  or  by  the  bishops 
of  the  province,  by  whom   they  were  afterwards  ordained." 


So  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

No  difference,  however,  in  regard  to  the  manner  of  their'ordi- 
nation,  is  named  or  alluded  to.  '*  These  bishops,  continues 
Hoadley,  must,  according  to  Jerome,  have  been  the  governors 
of  the  Church,  and  of  the  presbyters  themselves;  for  he  makes 
all  the  care  concerning  ecclesiastical  affairs  to  be  devolved 
upon  them  as  soon  as  they  were  constituted.  They  must  be  the 
ordainers  of  other  presbyters,  even  according  to  Blondel  him- 
self, unless  he  deny  to  them  what  he  grants  to  his  prime-pres- 
hytcrs  in  each  church.  So  that  here  are  bishops  with  distinct 
powers,  after  their  election,  from  those  of  their  electors,  im- 
mediately succeeding  St.  Mark  in  the  Church  of  Alexandria ; 
and  consequently  the  like  in  other  churches,  according  to  St. 
Jerome,  ivJw  makes  all  clmrclics  tuiifonn,  and  the  reception  of 
episcopacy,  wherever  it  was  received,  to  be  universal  at  the 
same  time!'  And  after  mentioning  this  peculiarity  in  the  mode 
of  the  bishop's  election  in  the  Church  at  Alexandria,  he  imme- 
diately adds:  ''  For  what  dots  a  bishop  do,  ordination  excepted, 
which  a  presbyter  may  not  do  ?  "  —  an  acknowledgment,  surely, 
that  presbyters  had  no  right  to  ordain, //'^;;2  the  begimmig ; 
since  in  Jerome's  day,  by  ecclesiastical  law,  bishops  had  other 
prerogatives  besides  that  of  ordination.  While  abasing  bish- 
ops to  the  lowest  possible  point,  he  yet  never  ascribes  to 
presbyters  the  ordaining  power.  The  utmost  he  assigns  to 
them  is,  the  power  of  government,  "  at  the  sam.e  time  denying 
to  them,"  as  Hoadley  remarks,  "  the  right  of  ordination,"  not 
only  in  his  own  day,  but  in  all  time. 

And   with   Jerome,    on    this    point,    stands    Chrysostom  : 
"  Bishops  are  only  superior  to  presbyters  in  the 

-??i-4ii.  '  ^"^  point  of  having  the  power,  or  right  of  ordi- 
nation, and  seem  to  have  no  other  superiority 
over  presbyters."  (/;/  Ep.  ad  i  Tim!)  He  here  evidently  speaks 
of  the  rights  of  the  episcopate  as  originally  constituted,  not  as 
they  were  in  his  own  days,  when  bishops  had  the  pre-emi- 
nence in  other  respects,  as  well  as  ordination. 

The  defenders  of  parity*  attempt  to  reinforce  the  "testi- 
mony" of  Jerome  in  behalf  of  presbyterial  ordination  by  that 

*  Stillingfleet  in  Irenicum  ;  Campbell,  Led.  Ecc,  Hist.;  Miller,  Letters;  etc. 


CECU  M  EN  IC  A  L    COUNCILS.  Si 

of  EuTVCHius,  Patriarch  of  Alexandria  in  the  tenth  centur\-  : 
*'  Mark,  having  constituted  Hananias  patriarch  of  Alexandria, 
appointed  with  him  twelve  presbyters,  who  were  to  remain 
with  the  patriarch,  so  that  when  the  patriarchate  was  vacant, 
they  might  elect  one  of  the  twelve  presbyters,  upon  whose 
head  the  other  eleven  might  place  their  hands 
and  bless  him,  and  create  him  patriarch,  and  then  "  >'^^'"^'  9jj 
choose  some  excellent  man,  and  appoint  him  presbyter  with 
themselves,  in  the  place  of  him  who  was  made  patriarch, 
that  thus  there  might  always  be  twelve.  Nor  did  this  custom 
respecting  the  presbyters,  namely,  that  they  should  create 
their  patriarchs  from  the  twelve  presbyters,  cease  at  Alexan- 
dria until  the  times  of  Alexander,  Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  who 
was  of  the  number  of  the  three  hundred  and  eighteen," 
(bishops  of  Nice.) 

In  reference  to  this  so-called  "  testimony,"  anti-presbyte- 
rian  writers  cannot  withhold  the  expression   of 
their  "surprise"    that    this    "worthless    legend"       worthless 
from  the  pen  "  of  so  late,  ignorant,  and  blunder- 
ing a  writer "  should  be  quoted  in  the  controversy.     They 
point  to  the  fact  that,  "  among  other  fatal  absurdities,  it  makes 
Alexander,  the  well-known  bishop  of  Alexandria  in  the  time 
of  Arius,  who  also  participated  in  a  council  (in  324)  which 
condemned   non-episcopal   orders   in  the  case   of  CoUuthus, 
yet  all  the  while  to  have  had  all  his  own  predecessors,  nay, 
apparently  even  himself,  actually  and  notoriously  consecrated 
by  only  presbyterian  consecration."  * 

The  external  unity  of  the  Church  Catholic  was  further  re- 
presented in  this  period  by  the  GLciimeyiical  Councils,  so  called 
as  representing  the  whole  Church  throughout  the  . 

Roman    empire,  (oixoufAsvii,)  and    convened    by  the      Councils. 
emperor.     As  the  provincial  synods  were  univer- 
sally regarded  as  organs  of  the  Holy  Spirit  for  the  guidance 
of  the  churches  of  a  certain  district,  so  the  uni-    .    ,     .      ^ 

•1  111  .  1-1  1        Authority  of. 

versal  councils  were  held  to  sustam  a  like  rela- 

*  Pearson,  Vi7id.,  pp.  326-7;    Bowden,  let.   i;    IIaddan,  Ap.  Success.,  pp. 
123,  etc. 
6 


82  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH, 

tioii  to  the  universal  Church.  They  were  the  organs  of  the 
Spirit  indwelling  in  the  Church,  by  which  He  guided  its  pro- 
gressive movement  —  the  voice  by  which  He  authoritatively 
determined  what  had  before  been  doubtful,  to  which  all  were 
bound  to  yield  implicit  submission. 

The  theory  of  Augustine  on  this   point,  and   that  which 
generally  obtained  throughout  the  Church,  since  his  time,  is 
best  expressed  in  his  own  words :  "  The  decision  of  contro- 
verted   questions  does   not   proceed   in    the  first 
^theory       instance   and   directly  from  the   transactions    of 
these  councils  ;   but  these  transactions,  rather,  are 
prepared  by  the  theological  discussions  which  have  preceded 
them.     The  decisions  of  councils  simply  give  the  expression 
of  public  authority  to  the  result  at  which  the  Church,  in  its 
development,  thus  far,  has  arrived.     Hence  a  general  council 
may  find  itself,  at  a  given  time,  incompetent  to  decide  a  dis- 
puted point,  from  the  fact  that  previous  discussion  had  not, 
as  yet,  prepared  the  way  for  a  definitive  decision."  {Dc  Bapt.) 
According  to  this  theoiy  it  would  appear  that  the  decisions 
of  an  earlier  council  might  be  subject  to  correction  by  those 
of  a  later ;  since  each  council  gives  only  that  decision  which 
answers  to  the  Church's  existing  stage  of  development.     But  it 
is   by  no   means  certain  from  his  words  as  just  quoted,  that 
such  was  Augustine's  opinion.     It  is  more  probable  that  his 
view   was    coincident   with   that   soon   afterward 
j^J"j^^g"^     expressed  by  Vincent  of  Lerins,  namely,  "that  a 
later  council  might  correct  the   decisions    of  an 
earlier,  ojily  so  far  as  to  define  ivliat  the  earlier  had  left  im- 
determined ;  just  as  the  more  advanced  development  of  the 
Church  might  require,  in  its  opposition  to  new  forms  of  error." 
[Conunonit.  xxix.) 

That  the  decrees  of /r^^'zV/r/^/ councils,  in  Vincent's  opinion, 
were  entitled  to  no  such  unquestioning  submission,  is  plain 
from  his  language  in  reference  to  the  Council  of  Carthage,  held 
under  the  presidency  of  Cyprian ;  "  What  force  had  the 
Council  or  Decree  of  Africa  ?  (condemning  the  baptism  of 
heretics.)     By  God's  Providence,  none ;  but  all  was  abolished, 


UTILITY    OF    COUNCILS.  83 

disannulled,  abrogated,  as  dreams,  as  fables.  And,  oh,  strange 
change  of  the  world  !  the  authors  of  that  opinion  are  judged 
to  be  Catholics,  but  the  followers  of  the  same,  heretics;  the 
masters  discharged,  the  disciples  condemned ;  the  writers  of 
those  books  shall  be  the  children  of  the  kingdom,  but  hell 
shall  receive  their  maintaincrs.  For  who  is  so  mad  as 
to  doubt  that  that  light  of  all  saints,  bishops,  and  martyrs,  the 
most  blessed  Cyprian,  with  the  rest  of  his  companions,  shall 
reign  with  Christ  forever  ?  And,  contrariwise,  who  is  so  pro- 
fane as  to  deny  that  the  Donatists,  and  such  other  pests,  which 
vaunt  that  they  do  practise  rebaptization  by  the  authority  of 
that  council,  shall  burn  forever  with  the  devil  ?  "  [Pro.  CatJi. 
Fid.  vi.) 

In  regard  to  the  utility  of  ecclesiastical  councils,  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Fathers  of  this  period   exhibits  a  considerable 
diversity.     It  is  recorded  as  one  of  the  noteworthy 
sayings    of  Facundus,   the   excellent   bishop    of     Councilt 
Hermiane  in  Africa.  (550-70,)  that  the  usefulness 
of  councils  was  confined  to  a  single  point,  viz.,  *'  that  they 
enable  us  to  believe  on  authority  that  which  we  are  incompe- 
tent intellectually  to  apprehend." 

The  judgment  of  Gregory  Nazianzen,  "  the  result  of  a  large 
and  various  experience,"  is  well  known  :  "  lam  so  constituted, 
that,  to  speak  the  truth,  I  dread  every  assembly  of  bishops ; 
for  I  have  never  yet  seen  a  good  end  of  any  one  —  never  have 
been  at  a  synod  which  did  more  for  the  suppression,  than 
it  did  for  the  increase,  of  evils  ;  for  an  indescribable  thirst  for 
contention  and  for  rule  prevails  in  them,  and  a  man  will  be  far 
more  likely  to  draw  upon  himself  the  reproach  of  wishing  to 
set  himself  up  as  a  judge  of  other  men's  wickedness,  than 
he  will  be  to  succeed  in  attempting  to  remove  it."  [Ep.  ad 
Proccp.  Iv.) 

The  canons  and  decrees  of  the  CEcumenical  Councils,  de- 
termined, as  they  were,  in  matters  of  doctrine,  by  a  unanimous 
vote  of  the  assembly,  and,  in  matters  of  discipline,  by  that  of 
a  majority,  constituted  a  body  of  ecclesiastical  law,  univer- 
sally binding  on  the  Church,  at  least  within  the  Roman  em- 


$4  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

pire.  Of  these,  two  collections  made  in  the  sixth  century- 
acquired  general  currency :  one  by  Dionysius  Exiguus,  a  Ro- 
man abbot,  who  combined  (500)  a  former  collection  of  the 

decisions  of  the  Roman  bishops,  (Decretals,)  from 
T°ci-eeT     *^^^  ^^"^^  ^^  Siricius,  (374,)  with  the  decrees  of  the 

first  four  general  councils  —  used  by  the  Western 
Church;  the  other  by  John  Scholasticus,  (ob.  578,)  Patriarch 
of  Constantinople,  consisting  of  fifty  heads,  and  used  by  the 
Greek  Church. 


SECOND   PERIOD. 

FROM  LEO  I.  TO  GREGORY  VII. 

A.  D.  460-1 OSO. 


CHAPTER  VIL 

Primacy  of  the  Church  of  Rome  early  asserted  —  Primacy  of  the 
Bishop  OF  Rome  —  Supremacy  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  first  asserted  by 
Leo  I.  —  Law  of  Valentinian  —  Canon  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  — 
Repudiated  by  Leo  —  Grounds  of  the  Claim  —  Peter's  Relation  to 
Christ  —  Relation  to  the  other  Apostles  —  Relation  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff  to  other  Bishops  —  Relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State  — 
The  Papal  System  —  Gelasius  —  His  Advanced  Position  —  Gregory  the 
Great  Repudiates  the  Title  of  Universal  Bishop  as  Profane — Isidore 
OF  Seville,  of  Ecclesiastical  Degrees. 

WE  have  seen  at  what  an  early  period  the  claim  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  to  a  certain  primacy  or  pre-eminence 
among  the  Western  churches  was  generally  acknowledged. 
The  grounds  upon  which  this  claim  was  originally  based  are 
clearly  enough  indicated  by  Irenaeus,  (the  first  of 
the  Fathers  to  make  distinct  allusion  to  it,)  when  ^''^^cyofthe 

1  Church  of 

he  describes  that  Church  as  "the  greatest,  the  Rome, 
oldest,  the  universally  known  church,  founded  and 
organized  at  Rome  by  the  two  most  glorious  apostles,  Peter 
and  Paul."  Its  superior  magnitude,  its  higher  antiquity,  and 
its  eminent  apostolicity  are  here  alleged  as  the  well-known 
grounds  of  the  pre-eminence  conceded  to  the  Church  of  Rome. 
In  other  words,  among  all  the  churches  of  the  West,  the 
Church  of  Rome  was  at  once  the  largest,  the  first  founded, 
and  the  only  one  founded  by  an  apostle.  Its  chief  title  to 
distinction  or   precedence,  however,  was  the  alleged  fact,  as 

85 


S6  THE    DOCTRINE    OF     THE    CHURCH. 

urged  by  Irenaeus,  of  its  eminent  apostolic  descent :  while  no 
other  church  throughout  the  West  could  claim  an  apostle  for 
its  founder,  the  Church  of  Rome  had  the  pre-eminent  honor  of 
having  been  founded  by  Izuo,  the  most  distinguished  of  the 
apostles. 

But  while  the  primacy  of  this  church  was  thus  early  ac- 
knowledged, the  primacy  of  its  pastoral  head  is  first  found 
definitely  alluded  to  in  the  writings  of  Cyprian, 
nmacy  o    le  -^^^  before  the  fifth  century,  however,  do  we  dis- 

Rome.  ^^^^  ^^^  beginnings  of  a  development  of  this  now 
settled  dogma  of  a  primacy  of  order  in  the  person 
of  the  Roman  Pontiff  into  that  of  a  primacy  of  power,  or 
supremacy  of  jurisdiction  over  the  universal  Church. 

In  the  uncompromising  assertion  of  this  position  of  sover- 
eignty for  the  See  of  Rome,  Leo  I.  holds  the  first  place.  In  a 
letter  addressed  to  the  Illyrian  bishops,  he  claims  that  "  on 
Su  remac   of  ^^"^'    ^^    ^^^^  successor    of  the    apostle   Peter,   on 

the  Roman  wliom,  as  tlic  reward  of  his  faith,  the  Lord  had  con- 
Pontiff  asserted  ferred  the  primacy  of  apostolic  rank,  and  on  whom 

by  Leo  I.,     pj^    j^^^j  firmly  grounded    the  universal   Church, 

was  devolved  the  care  of  all  the  other  churches." 

{Ep.  V.  ad  Metrop.  Illyr.)     And   to   settle   the  point  beyond 

further    controversy,  he   procured    from  the  young  emperor, 

Valentinian   III.,  the  enactment  of  a  law,  (445,)  supposed  to 

have   been   dictated  by  himself,    constituting  the    Bishop   of 

Rome  the  supreme  head  of  the  whole  Western  Church.     **  The 

primacy  of  the  apostolic  see  (so  reads  the  law) 
Law  of  Valen-  . 

tinian         having  been  established  by  the  merit  of  St.  Peter 

—  the  prince  of  the  episcopal  crown  —  by  the 
dignity  of  the  city  of  Rome,  and  by  the  authority  of  a  holy 
synod,  let  no  pretended  power  arrogate  to  itself  anything 
against  the  authority  of  that  see.  For  the  peace  of  the 
churches  is  to  be  universally  preserved  only  when  the  whole 
Church  acknowledges  its  ruler.  .  .  .  Nor  this  only  .  .  .  but  to 
prevent  the  rise  of  dissension  in  the  churches,  and  that  disci- 
pline may  not,  in  any  particular,  seem  to  be  relaxed,  we  or- 
dain, by  this  perpetual  decree,  that  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for 


REPUDIATED     BV     LEO.  8/ 

the  bishops,  as  well  those  of  Gaul  as  of  the  other  provinces, 
to  attempt  anything  in  opposition  to  ancient  custom,  without 
the  authority  of  the  venerable  man,  the  Pope  of  the  eternal 
city."  Resistance  to  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Bishop  is 
thus  declared  to  be  an  offence  against  the  Roman  state  ;  and 
it  is  further  enacted,  that  "  whatever  the  Apostolic  See  ordains 
shall  be  law  for  all ;  and  that  any  bishop  who  neglects  a 
summons  to  the  tribunal  of  the  Roman  Bishop,  shall  be 
forcibly  compelled  to  appear  by  the  civil  governor  of  the  prov- 
ince." [Lconis  0pp.  Ep.  xi.)  [No.  13.] 

The  second  oecumenical  council  (of  Constantinople,  381)  had 
decreed  in  its  third  canon  "  that  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople 
should  have  the  prerogative  of  honor  next  after  the  Bishop 
of    Rome,   because    it   (Constantinople)   is    New 
Rome."     This  decree  was  confirmed  by  the  Coun-  ^^^"""^  °/*^/ 

/  Council  of 

cil  of  Chalcedon  (451)  in  its  twenty-eighth  canon,    chalcedon. 
with  this  explanation :    "  For  to  the  throne  of  old 
Rome,  because  that  zcas  the  imperial  city,  the  fathers  rightly 
granted  privileges  ;  and  moved  by  the  same  considerations,  the 
one  hundred  and  fifty  bishops  (of  the  Council  of  Constantino- 
ple) have  given  the  like  privileges  to  the  most  holy  throne  of 
New  Rome,  rightly  judging  that  the  city  which  was  honored 
with  the  seat  of  empire  and  the  senate,  enjoying,  too,  the  same 
civil  privileges  with  the  old  imperial  Rome,  should  be  honored 
as  she  is  in  ecclesiastical  matters  also,  being  second,  after  her." 
Against  this   decree,  as  resting  the  higher  dignity  of  the 
Roman  see  on  the  political  superiority  of  the  Roman  city,  in- 
stead of  a  divine  institution,  the  delegates  of  Leo  the  Great  in 
the  council  entered  an  emphatic  protest.     Leo  him- 
self denounced  it  as  a  usurpation.     Writing  to  the       ^  ^^_^ 
emperor,  he  says  :  "The  case  is  quite  different  with 
worldly  relations,  and  with  those  that  concern  the  things  of 
God;  and  without  that  rock  which  our  Lord  has  wonderfully 
laid  as  the  foundation,  no  structure  can  stand  firm.     Let  it 
satisfy  Anatolius  (Patriarch  of  Constantinople)  that,  by  your 
assistance,  and  by  my  ready  assent,  he   has  attained  to   the 
bishopric  of  so  great  a  city.     Let  not  the  imperial  city  be  too 


88  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

small  for  him,  which  yet  he  cannot  convert  into  an  apostolic 
see"  —  scdcs  apostolica  —  the  Church  at  Constantinople  not 
having  been  founded  or  presided  over  by  an  apostle.  {Ep. 
Ixxviii.)  Anatolius  having  appealed  to  the  authority  of  the 
second  oecumenical  council,  which  had  adjudged  this  rank  to 
the  Constantinopolitan  Church,  Leo,  in  reply,  pronounced  the 
canon  to  that  effect  null  and  void,  if  for  no  other  reason, 
"'because  it  had  never  been  coimnunicated  to  the  Apostolic  See." 
{Ep.  Ixxx.  5.) 

In  the  very  beginning  of  the  Council  of  Constantinople,  the 
papal  legates  made  this  declaration  :  "  We  hold  in  our  hands 
the  injunctions  of  the  most  blessed  and  apostolical  Pope  of  the 
city  of  Rome,  which  is  the  head  of  all  churches,  in  which  his 
apostleship  deigns  to  command  that  Dioscurus,  Archbishop 
of  Alexandria,  shall  not  sit  in  the  council,  but  may  be  admit- 
ted for  a  hearing.  This  it  is  necessary  that  we  observe.  If 
then,  your  majesty  commands,  either  he  must  go  forth,  or  we 
depart.  It  is  necessary  that  he  give  an  account  of  his  conduct 
in  having  dared,  without  authority,  presumptuously  to  con- 
voke a  council  (the  Robber  Synod)  without  the  authority  of 
the  Apostolic  See,  which  was  in  violation  of  all  law  and  of  all 
precedent." 

The  ground  of  these  lofty  claims  Leo  pretends  to  find  in  the 
relation  of  Peter  to  Christ  and  to  the  other  apostles  ;  more  par- 
ticularly, in  the  peculiarly  intimate  relation  of  the  prince  of  the 
apostles  to  Christ:  "Peter  being  received  by  Christ 

Grounds  of     .  .  -  !•    •  i     1  •  •  1     1  •  ^c 

the  claim  ^^^^  communion  of  undivided  unity  with  nimseli, 
the  Lord  willed  him  to  be  named  that  which  he 
himself  was,  when  he  said  :  *  Thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this 
rock  I  will  build  my  church;'  that  the  building  of  the  eternal 
temple,  by  a  wonderful  gift  of  divine  grace,  might  consist 
in  Peter's  steadfastness ;  by  his  firmness  strengthening  His 
Church,  so  that  neither  human  temerity  nor  the  gates  of  hell, 
should  prevail  against  it."  This  communion  of  indivisible 
unity  into  which  the  Lord  received  Peter  is  based  **  upon  the 
good  confession  which  Peter  was  the  first  to  make  —  a  confes- 
sion which  he  could  have  made  only  as  he  was  strong  in  the 


Peter's   relation  to  the  other  apostles.     89 

power  of  the  Lord."  Tin's  communion  of  the  person  was, 
however,  to  extend  itself  to  a  community  of  authority  and 
power:  "Because  thou  art  Peter;  that  is,  since  I  am  the  cor- 
ner-stone who  make  both  one,  I  the  foundation,  beside  which 
no  one  can  lay  any  other;  yet  thou  also  art  a  rock,  because 
thou  art  steadfast  by  my  strength,  so  that  whatever  is  proper 
to  me,  by  inherent  power,  is  common  to  you  with  me  by  par- 
ticipation." (Ep.  iv.  2.)  Peter,  indeed,  wavered  in  his  faith,  de- 
nying the  Lord;  but  this  was  permitted  only  in  order  that  in 
the  prince  of  the  Church  might  be  laid  up  the  remedy  of  pen- 
itence, and  that  no  one  might  dare  to  confide  in  his  own 
strength,  when  not  even  the  blessed  Peter  was  able  to  escape 
the  danger  of  mutability.  But  the  rock  speedily  returned  to 
his  stability,  receiving  so  great  a  measure  of  strength,  that 
whereas  he  was  then  struck  with  dread  at  Christ's  passion,  he 
afterward  endured  his  own  without  fear.  (Ep.  Ix.  4.) 

Peter's  relation  to  the  other  apostles  is  such  that  he  not 
only  is  all  that  they  are,  but  also  has  and  is  much  that  is  ex- 
clusively his  own  :  "  Peter  was  so  plentifully  endowed  from  the 
fountain  of  all  gifts  and  graces,  that  while  he  alone 

was  the  recipient  of  many,  no  one  g-ift  was  be-  ^^^^"^  ^  relation 

,  .  V  ,  .  .    .        .  to  the  other 

Stowed    on  any  other  without    his  participation.       apostles 

From  the  whole  world  Peter  alone  is  chosen  to 
occupy  the  position  of  precedence,  both  in  relation  to  the 
calling  of  all  nations,  and  to  all  the  apostles  and  fathers  of 
the  Church  ;  that  however  numerous  might  be  the  priests  and 
pastors  of  the  people  of  God,  Peter  should  yet  properly  rule 
over  all,  whom  Christ  also  rules  over  in  the  hii^hest  sense. 
Great  and  wonderful  the  community  of  its  power  vouchsafed 
to  Peter  by  the  divine  condescension  !  And  if  any  gift  were 
bestowed  upon  other  princes  in  common  with  him,  it  was 
bestowed  only  through  him."  [Ep.  iv.  2.)  "The  power  of  the 
keys  was  given  indeed  to  all  the  apostles,  yet  not  without 
purpose  is  that  expressly  committed  to  one  which  is  an- 
nounced to  all.  To  Peter  this  trust  is  peculiarly  given,  since 
to  him  is  assigned  the  presidency  over  all  the  rulers  of  the 
Church.     And    as    Peter  is  the  head  of  all  the  apostles,  so 


90  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

also  are  all  intrusted  with  their  office  only  in  hint,  all  in  him 
sav^ed  ;  therefore  is  he  taken  into  the  Lord's  special  care ; 
hence  the  Lord  prays  for  him  in  a  special  manner,  as  if  the 
state  of  others  would  become  more  secure  if  his  faith  should 
abide  unmoved." 

As  Leo  identifies  the  Church  with  the  incarnation  of  Christ, 
so  he  identifies  Peter  with  Christ.  Hence  the  primacy  is  of 
perpetual  continuance  ;  for  as  that  in  the  person  of  Christ 
which  was  the  object  of  Peter's  faith  is  perpetual,  so  that 
which  Christ  ordained  in  the  person  of  Peter  is  also  perpetual. 
This  primacy  is  perpetuated  in  the  successors  of  Peter,  who 
sustain  the  same  relation  to  Peter  that  Peter  sustains  to 
Christ.  '*  As  Christ  is  in  Peter,  so  is  Peter  in  his  successors  ; 
in  them  Peter  fulfils  evermore  the  commission  of  the  Lord : 
Feed  viy  sheep.  Christ  bestowed  on  him  whom  He  made 
prince  of  the  whole  Church  such  ample  power  that  whatever 
is  properly  done  by  us,  even  in  our  own  age,  is  to  be  ascribed 
to  his  agency,  intervention,  or  oversight,  to  whom  it  was  said  : 
'  and  thou,  when  thou  art  converted,  strengthen  thy  brethren.' " 
{Ser7n.  iv.  4.) 

"  Rome,"  says  Leo,  "  is  made  illustrious  by  the  death  of 
the  two  most  eminent  apostles,  Paul  and  Peter;  they  advanced 
thee  (Rome)  to  such  a  pitch  of  glory,  that  a  holy  nation, 
a  chosen  people,  a  sacerdotal  and  royal  city,  by  means  of  the 
sacred  seat  of  the  blessed  Peter  made  the  capital  of  the  globe, 
thou  mightest  exercise  a  more  extensive  sway  by  means 
of  divine  religion,  than  by  an  earthly  dominion.  [Serin. 
Ixxxi.  I.)  .  .  .  That  the  effect  of  this  unspeakable  grace  (of  the 
Incarnation)  might  be  diffused  throughout  the  whole  world. 
Divine  Providence  prepared  the  Roman  kingdom,  the  bounds 
of  which  became  so  extended  that  they  bordered  on  all  the 
nations  of  the  globe.  It  well  accorded  with  a  work  divinely 
ordered,  that  many  kingdoms  should  become  incorporated  in 
one  empire,  and  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  thus  speedily 
reach  nations  held  under  the  government  of  a  single  city." 
Leo  thus  recognizes  a  special  ordering  of  Divine  Providence 
in  the  fact  that  Peter  was  directed  to  abide  at  Rome,  and  that 


RELATION  OF  THE  SUPREME  PONTIFF.       9I 

Rome,  in  and  through  him,  was  constituted  the  centre  of  the 
Christian  world. 

According  to  Leo,  the  relation  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  to 
all  other  bishops  is  the  same  as  that  of  Peter  to  his  fel- 
low-apostles :  "  The  bishops  hav^e  the  same  dignity,  but  not 
the  same  power.  For  even  among  the  holy 
apostles,  though  they  all  alike  bore  the  title  of  ^^^^^ion  of  the 
apostle,    yet    a    marked    subordination    obtained,  ^"PJ"^"^^  f^"" 

,  '     tiff  to  other 

SO  that  only  one  —  Peter  —  occupied  the  first  bishops, 
place.  Hence  is  derived  the  distinction  among  the 
bishops.  It  is  a  fundamental  law  of  the  Church,  that  all  may 
not  claim  all  in  the  same  way,  but  in  every  province  is  one  (the 
bishop  of  the  provincial  chief  city)  who  has  the  first  voice 
among  his  brethren.  Again,  to  those  who  occupy  the  episco- 
pal chairs  in  the  greater  cities  (the  metropolitans)  there  belongs 
a  greater  power.  But  the  supervision  of  the  whole  Church  is 
committed  to  the  care  of  the  chair  of  Peter,  and  no  one  may 
separate  himself  from  it  —  the  common  head." 

Such  is  Leo's  exposition  of  the  pretended  supernatural 
power  of  Peter,  his  mysterious  unity  with  the  Lord,  and  his 
earthly  dominion.  He  is  the  head  of  the  Church,  and, 
according  to  divine  institution,  has  to  care  for  the  whole 
Church,  both  of  the  West  and  East,  for  he  is  the  medium 
"  from  which,  as  from  the  fountain-head,  God  pours  out 
his  gifts  as  it  were  upon  the  whole  body."  The  Pope  rules 
over  the  whole  Church  in  the  name  of  Peter,  who  still  ever  sits 
upon  his  seat ;  he  decides  and  pronounces  by  divine  inspira- 
tion ;  the  administration  of  the  Church  is  by  divine  appoint- 
ment committed  to  him.  For  this  object  the  other  bishops 
are  to  co-operate  with  him,  since  they  also  are  taught  of  Christ 
and  the  apostles.  The  Roman  Bishop  is  therefore  pos.5:ssed 
of  authority  adequate  for  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the 
Church  ;  and  has  especially  to  take  care  that  heresies  and 
schisms  do  not  destroy  the  orthodoxy  and  unity  of  the  Church. 
He  is  thus  the  highest  court  of  appeal  in  all  controversies. 
While  thus  explicitly  asserting  for  his  chair  an  absolute  pri- 
macy  in   the    Church,    Leo   took    special    care,    it  is    to   be 


92  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

remarked,  to  express  himself  guardedly  in  reference  to  the 
bearing  of  his  system  on  the  question  of  the  subordination  of 
the  secular  to  the  spiritual  power. 

Thus,  he  says :  '*  It  pertains  to  the  imperial  power  to  pro- 
vide that  the  disturbers  of  the  Church's  peace  and  of  the  re- 
public, which  justly  glories  in  Christian  princes,  be  restrained." 
{Ep.  cxviii.  I.)  And  addressing  the  emperor,  he  says:  "It  is 
incumbent  on  thee  to  remember  that  the  royal 
e  ation  o     pQ^gj.  jg  conferred  upon  thee  not  for  the  govern- 

the  State,  "lent  of  the  world  alone,  but  chiefly  for  the  de- 
fence and  protection  of  the  Church."  And  even 
the  edict  of  Valentinian,  which  so  unreservedly  acknowledges 
the  Roman  primacy,  bears  the  impress  of  a  consciousness 
that  the  imperial  authority  is  paramount  to  every  other. 
Leo  needed  the  aid  of  the  secular  power,  as  an  instrument  for 
the  furtherance  of  his  plans,  too  much,  to  risk  the  loss  of  it 
by  an  open  assertion  of  his  claim  to  precedence.  So  much 
the  more  decidedly,  however,  did  he  proclaim  his  unlimited 
authority  in  ecclesiastical  affairs,  as  when  he  writes  :  "  Who- 
soever he  be  who  thinks  that  the  primacy  (principatum)  is  to 
be  denied  to  Peter,  is  not  able  to  detract  from  his  dignity  in 
the  least,  but,  inflated  with  the  spirit  of  his  own  pride,  sinks 
himself  down  to  hell."  [Ep.  x.  2.  5.  Leonis  Magni  Opera 
Omnia,  Paris,  2  vols.  4fo,  1675.) 

Thus  in  the  person  of  Leo  I.  we  have  the  first  clear  revela- 
tion of  that  "  mystery  of  iniquity"  —  the  papal  system.  "The 
calamities  of  the  age  "  favored  its  development,  "  removing 
from  the  path  of  Roman  ambition  the  hindrance  which  had 
been  opposed  by  the  independent  Church  of  Africa 

System.  — a  church  distinguished  far  beyond  Rome  itself 
by  the  services  which  its  members  had  rendered 
to  theology  and  learning.  The  Africans,  oppressed  by  the 
Arian  invaders  of  their  country,  were  glad  to  seek  support 
from  a  connection  with  Rome;  and  the  interference  which 
had  been  boldly  rejected  in  the  days  of  Zozimus,  was  admit- 
ted, without  objection,  at  the  hands  of  the  latter  bishop."  * 

*  Robertson,  i.  4S0. 


GALASIUS  —  HIS    ADVANCED    POSITION.  93 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  Bishops  of  Rome  were 
hitherto  distinguished  by  no  pecuHar  title.  That  o{ patriarch, 
as  also  oi pope  — papa  apostoliciis  —  Vicar  of  Christ, 
Chief  Pontiff^,  were  common  to  them  with  other  ^  ^  ^  °^^^' 
bishops,  both  East  and  West.  The  term  Apostolic  See  was 
moreover  applied  to  the  Roman  Church  in  common  with 
other  churches  of  apostolic  descent. 

As   a  worthy  successor   of  Leo,  Gelasius  claimed   for  the 

Roman  See,  not  only  the  highest  judicial  authority 

-„,,,,,  .  _  Gelasius, 

m   the  Church,  but  also  the  prerogative  of  over-         ^_^ 

sight  in  regard  alike  to  orthodoxy  and  the  execu- 
tion of  ecclesiastical  laws  throughout  Christendom.  While 
his  immediate  predecessors  were  sometimes  content  to  rest 
these  claims  on  the  combined  authority  of  the  imperial  edicts 
and  synodal  decrees,  (thus  Hilary,  Ep.  xi.,  quoted  in  Geiseler, 
i.,  p.  497,)  Gelasius  founds  them  on  the  primacy  transmitted 
through  Peter,  and  exercised  by  him  jointly  with 
Paul,  disdaining  to  base  them  on  the  decrees  of  position 
synods  ;  thus  exalting  the  authority  of  the  Roman 
See  above  the  authority  of  councils.  In  the  decree  concerning 
books  to  be  received  and  to  be  rejected,  ascribed  to  him,  he  writes: 
"  The  holy  Roman  Church  has  precedence  over  other  churches, 
not  by  virtue  of  any  synodical  decrees  or  canons  ;  but  she  ob- 
tained the  primacy  by  the  voice  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  in 
the  gospel :  Thou  art  Peter,  etc.  With  whom  was  associated 
the  blessed  apostle  Paul,  who,  on  the  same  day  with  Peter,  re- 
ceived the  crown  of  martyrdom,  in  a  glorious  death,  at  Rome. 
And  they  equally  (by  their  joint  action)  consecrated  the 
Roman  Church  to  Christ,  and  by  their  presence  and  glorious 
martyrdom  (venerando  triumpho)  gave  it  pre-eminence  over 
all  other  churches  throughout  the  whole  world."  Again : 
"  Not  only  has  the  Roman  See  the  right  to  judge  and  decide, 
but  all  appeal  from  the  decisions  of  that  see  are  inadmissible, 
the  first  place  being,  by  the  universal  consent  of  the  Church, 
conceded  to  it,  in  virtue  of  which  it  confirms  the  decrees  of 
every  synod  by  its  authority,  and,  in  accordance  with  its  posi- 
tion of  primacy,  (principatu,)  supervises  these  by  a  constant 


94  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

oversight."  {Ep.  xiii.  ad  Episc.  Dardan.  Mansi.  S.  Con.  viii.) 
In  a  letter  to  Faiistus,  he  deigns  to  recognize  {profonnd)  some 
authority  in  synodical  decrees:  "So  far.as  religion  is  con- 
cerned, the  last  appeal,  according  to  the  canons,  belongs  of  right 
exclusively  to  the  Apostolic  See."  {Gel.  Ep.  iv.) 

A  century  later,  Gregory  the  First  vindicates  his  claim  to 
the  title  of  "  the  Great,"  not  less  by  his  adoption 
«!qo-6o4  '    of  that  of  Servus  servornm  Dei,  than  by  his  ener- 
getic repudiation  of  that  of  "universal  bishop." 
**  It  is  plain,"  he   writes  to   the  Emperor  Maurice,  "  to  all 
those  who  know  the  gospel,  that  by  the  Lord's  word  the  care 
of  the  whole  Church  was  committed  to  the  holy  apostle  Peter, 
prince  of  all  the  apostles."  ..."  The  care   of  the 
Universal     ^\^q\q  Church  and  its  government  are  committed 

Bishop.  ,  111.  11     1  •  / 

to  him  ;  nevertheless,  he  is  not  called  tiniversal 
apostle;  but  John,  {the  Faster,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,)  that 
most  holy  man,  my  fellow-priest,  attempts  to  be  called  univer- 
sal bishop.  I  am  compelled  to  exclaim,  O  times  !  O  customs  ! 
Behold,  all  things  in  all  parts  of  Europe  have  been  delivered 
up  to  the  will  of  the  barbarians, .  .  .  and  yet  priests,  who  ought 
to  lie  weeping  on  the  pavement  and  in  ashes,  covet  names  of 

vanity  for  themselves,  and  glory  in  new  and  pro- 

A  profane     ^^^^^  titles.  .  .  .  Who  is  he  who  now  presumes  to 
title-.  ,  .  ,.  ^       , 

usurp  a  new  name  to  himself,  contrary  to  the  evan- 
gelical statutes ;  contrary  to  the  decrees  of  the  councils  ?  .  .  . 
But  let  this  name  of  blasphemy  be  far  from  the  hearts  of  Chris- 
tians, in  which  the  honor  of  all  priests  is  taken  away,  whilst 
by  one  it  is  madly  arrogated  to  himself  For  the  honor  of  the 
blessed  Peter,  prince  of  the  apostles,  indeed,  the  name  was 
offered  by  the  venerated  Council  of  Chalcedon  to  the  Roman 
Pontiff;  but  no  one  of  them  ever  assumed  this  term  of  singu- 
larity." {Ep.  xxxii.) 

To  John  himself:  "  If  Paul  would  not  suffer  the  members 
of  the  Lord's  body  to  subject  themselves  to  any  other  head 
than  Christ,  not  even  to  an  apostle,  what  wilt  thou  say  to 
Christ,  the  head  of  the  universal  Church,  at  the  last  judgment? 
Thou  who  hast  sought,  by  the  title  of  universal  bishop,  to  sub- 


DEGREES  OF  THE  HIERARCHY.  95 

ject  all  his  members  to  thyself?  .  .  .  Peter,  indeed,  is  the  first 
member  of  the  holy  and  universal  Church.  Paul,  Andrew, 
John,  what  else  but  heads  of  particular  peoples  ?  Yet  all  of  them 
are  members  of  the  Church  under  the  One  Head."  [Ep.  xxxviii.) 
[No.  17.] 

*'  It  is  very  hard  that,  after  we  have  parted  with  our  silver, 
our  gold,  our  slaves,  and  even  our  garments,  for  the  public 
welfare,  we  should  be  obliged  to  part  with  our  faith,  too ;  for 
to  agree  to  that  impious  title  (scclcsto  vocabulo)  were  parting 
with  our  faith."  (Ad  Ajzian) 

"  I  speak  confidently,  for  whosoever  calls  himself  universal 
priest,  {iinivcrsalcjii  saccrdotcin,)  or  desires  to  be  so  called,  is, 
in  his  loftiness,  the  precursor  of  Antichrist,  because  in  his 
pride  he  sets  himself  before  others."  [Ep.  xxx.) 

Contemporary  with  Gregory  was  Isidore  of  Seville,  the 
most  learned  theologian  and   most  celebrated  writer  of  the 
seventh   century.     In  the  twelfth   chapter  of  the 
seventh  book  of  his  Etymologice,  [No.  20,]  incor-     ^^^^^l^^,  ^^ 
porated  into  the  Decrctum  Gratiani,  {P.  i.  Dist.  xxi.         5,5  ' 
I,)  he  describes  all  the  grades  of  the  hierarchy, 
and,  strangely  enough,  makes  no  mention  of  the  highest  —  the 
supreme  pontificate.     Of  the  chapter  in  the  Decretum  headed 
Wlience  the  names  of  ecclesiastical  degrees  are  taken  —  too  long 
for  transcription  —  the  following  are  the  principal  parts  :  "We 
believe  that  the  term  clercry  had  its  orif:[;in  in  the 

T»/r       1  •  1  ,  ^  Degrees  of 

fact  that  Matthias,  who,  as  we  read,  was  first  or-  ^j.^^  hierarchy. 

dained  by  the  apostles,  was  elected  by  lot.  For 
xXiipoc:  in  Greek  means  lot  or  heritage  in  Latin.  They  are 
therefore  called  clergy  because  they  are  the  Lord's  heritage, 
or  because  they  have  the  Lord  for  their  portion.  But  gen- 
erally all  are  called  clergymen  who  serve  in  the  Church  of 
Christ ;  and  of  these  the  degrees  and  names  are  the  following: 
Ostiarius,  or  doorkeeper,  psalmist,  reader,  exorcist,  acolyte, 
sub-deacon,  deacon,  presbyter,  bishop.  The  order  of  bishops 
is  fourfold,  consisting  of  patriarchs,  archbishops,  metropolitans, 
and  bishops.  The  patriarch,  signifying  in  Greek  the  chief  of 
the  fathers,  is  so  named  because  he  holds  the  first,  that  is,  the 


95  THEDOCTRINEOFTHECHURCH. 

apostolic  place,  and  is  invested  with  the  highest  honor,  as  the 
Roman,  the  Antiochian,  the  Alexandrian  patriarch.  The  arch- 
bishop is  so  named  in  Greek  because  he  is  chief  of  the  bishops, 
for  he  holds  the  apostolic  place,  {inccin^  and  presides  over  the 
metropolitans  as  well  as  other  bishops. 

"  Metropolitans  are  so  named  from  the  size  of  cities ;  for  they 
occupy  the  first  place,  each  in  his  own  province  ;  to  their 
authority  and  teaching  the  other  priests  are  subject,  and  with- 
out them  it  is  not  lawful  for  the  other  bishops  to  do  anything, 
for  to  them  the  care  of  the  whole  province  is  committed.  .  .  . 

5.  But  all  the  orders  {ordincs)  above  named  are  designated  by 
one  and  the  same  title  —  bishop ;  yet  so  that  some  use  their 
own  private  name  in  order  to  distinguish  their  peculiar  powers. 

6.  Patriarch,  prince  of  the  fathers  :  app^wv  being  the  Greek  for 
prince ;  then  archbishop,  prince  of  bishops,  as  metropolitan, 
from  the  size  of  cities.  7.  The  word  episcopate  implies  super- 
intendence, he  who  is  made  a  bishop  exercising  a  superintend- 
ing care  over  subordinates.  The  word  bishop  in  Greek  means 
inspector  in  Latin  ;  for  a  prelate  (praepositus)  in  the  Church 
is  called  inspector,  {speculator^  because  he  inspects  the  life  and 
manners  of  people  placed  under  him.  8.  Pontiff  is  prince  of 
priests,  .  .  .  and  is  st}led  both  high  priest  (summus  sacerdos) 
and  chief  pontiff  (pontifex  maximus.)  For  he  makes  priests 
and  Levites ;  he  disposes  all  ecclesiastical  orders ;  he  shows 
what  each  one  ought  to  do.  Formerly  those  who  were  kings 
were  also  pontiffs.  For  it  was  the  custom  of  the  ancients 
that  the  king  should  be  both  priest  and  pontiff  Hence  the 
Roman  emperors  were  called  pontiffs.  9.  Vatcs  is  so  named 
from  force  of  mind  {a  vi  mentis})  It  has  several  meanings  — 
priest,  prophet,  poet.  10.  A  priest  is  called  president  (antistes) 
because  he  presides  (antestat) ;  he  is  the  first  in  the  order  of 
the  Church  ;  /le  has  no  one  above  hint.  11.  The  word  sacerdos 
is  a  Greek  and  Latin  compound  as  it  were  sacnnndans ;  for  as 
rex  is  from  regendo  so  sacerdos  is  from  sacrificando ;  for  he 
consecrates  and  sacrifices.  But  the  heathen  priests  were  called 
flaviens,  q.  d.  filaniincs,  so  called  from  the  woollen  thread 
{filuvi)  with  which  they  used  to  bind  their  head.     12.  Presbyter 


DEGREES    OF    THE    HIERARCHY. 


97 


is  Greek  for  elder,  so  named  not  only  on  account  of  age,  but 
also  on  account  of  the  honor  and  dignity  which  they  have  re- 
ceived. Hence  luitJi  the  ancients,  bishops  and  presbyters  were 
the  same,  because  the  name  is  one  of  dignity,  and  not  of  age. 
Presbyters  as  well  as  bishops  are  called  priests,  because  they 
minister  in  sacred  things ;  and  yet,  though  priests,  they  have 
not  attained  the  height  of  the  pontificate,  since  they  do  not 
sign  the  forehead  with  chrism,  {confirm^  nor  give  the  Spirit, 
the  Paraclete,  which,  as  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  shows,  be- 
longs to  the  bishops  alone." 


THIRD   PERIOD. 
FROM   GREGORY  VIL  TO  THE   REFORMATION. 

A.  D.   I080-I53O. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals  —  Object  of  the  Compilatiok  —  Sample 
OF  THEIR  Teaching — Gregory  VII.  —  Supremacy  of  the  Church  over 
THE  State — Dictates  of  Gregory  —  Leading  Features  of  the  Papal 
System  —  New  Relation  of  the  Papacy  to  the  Church  —  Development 
OF  Papal  Power  under  Innocent  III.  —  Pope  now  named  Vicar  of  Christ 
—  Less  than  God  —  Greater  than  Man — The  Source  of  all  Law  — 
Hugo  of  St.  Victor. 

MENTION  has  been  made  of  a  collection  of  ecclesiastical 
laws    drawn  up  by  Dionysius    Exiguus  in  the   sixth 
century,  containing  the   Papal   Decretals   from   the   time    of 
Siricius  to  the  date  of  the  compilation.     Of  the  numerous  re- 
Pseudo-Isido-    censions    of  this    collection    one   was    especially 
nan  known  by  the  name  of  Isidore  of  Seville  ;  and 

Decretals.  ^^g  same  venerated  name  (as  that  of  the  most 
popular  and  influential  writer  of  the  age)  was  made  use  of  to 
give  currency  to  a  collection  of  spurious  decretals,  known  as 
the  Pseiido-Isidoriaiia,  (829-857.)  [No.  21.]  This  new  code, 
which  appeared  "  on  a  sudden,  unannounced,  without  prepa- 
ration, not  absolutely  unquestioned,  but  apparently  overawing 
at  once  all  doubt,  "  added  to  the  former  authentic  documents 
fifty-nine  letters  and  decrees  of  the  twenty  oldest  Popes,  from 
Clement  to  Melchiades,  and  the  donation  of  Constantine ;  and 
in  the  third  part,  among  the  decrees  of  the  Popes  and  of  the 
councils  from  Silvester  to  Gregory  II.,  thirty-nine  false  de- 
98 


QUOTATION     FROM     GRATIAN.  99 

crees,  and  the  acts  of  several  unauthentic  councils.  "In  this 
vast  manual  of  sacerdotal  Christianity  the  Popes  appear  from 
the  first  the  parents,  guardians,  legislators  of  the  faith  through- 
out the  world."  * 

The  object  of  the  compilation,  as  it  is  now  generally  held, 
was  to  render  the  Church  independent  of  the  State,  and  to 
give  it  a  self-dependent  centre  of  protection  in  the  Roman  See. 
Exaltation  of  the  episcopate ;  numerous  definitions  for  the 
purpose  of  securine^  the  clercry,  and,  in  particular, 

1        ,-1  .  ,^'^\...  r     1        Object  of  the 

the  bishops,  agamst  attacks ;  limitation  ot  the  compilation, 
metropolitans,  who  were  often  very  much  depend- 
ent upon. the  civil  power  ;  elevation  of  the  primates  to  be  the 
first  instruments  of  the  Popes  ;  and,  in  particular,  an  enlarge- 
ment of  the  privileges  of  the  Roman  See ;  these,  as  enumer- 
ated by  Gieseler,  form  the  chief  ecclesiastical  and  legal  contents 
of  the  Psciido-Isidoriana. 

Here,  for  the  first  time,  the  Pope  appears  as  the  supreme 
head,  lawgiver,  and  judge  of  the  Church,  the  one  bishop 
of  the  whole.  To  him,  as  the  court  of  ultimate  appeal,  all 
causes  may  be  carried ;  to  him  alone  it  belongs  to  decide  all 
weighty  or  difificult  causes.  Without  his  leave,  not  even  pro- 
vincial councils  may  be  called,  nor  have  their  judgments  any 
validity.  Bishops  are  declared  exempt  from  all  secular  judg- 
ment. The  judgment  of  wicked  bishops  is  to  be  left  to  God. 
If  charges  should  be  brought  against  a  bishop,  care  is  taken, 
by  laying  down  such  necessary  conditions  as  to  render  their 
prosecution  almost  impossible. 

As  a  fair  sample  of  the  teaching  of  these  famous  documents, 
take  the  following  passage,  partly  incorporated  into  the  Dccrc- 
Uim  Gratiani :  "It  is  matter  of  doubt  to  none  that  the  Ro- 
man Church  is  the  foundation  and  pattern  i  forma,  . 

•  \      Quotation 

I  Pet.  V.  3— Tu<jroi  Tou  ^oifAv.ou  —  Vm\%.  forma  grcgis)  ^^^^q^^^^^^ 
of  the  churches,  from  which  all  churches  received 
their  beginning ;  since,  although  the  choice  of  all  the  apostles 
was  the  same,  yet  to  the  blessed  Peter  it  was  granted  that  he 
should  have  precedence  of  the  rest ;  whence  also  he  is  called 

*  Milraan. 


100         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Cephas,  because  he  is  the  head  and  first  of  all  the  apostles. 
And  it  is  necessary  that  that  which  preceded  in  the  head 
should  follow  in  the  members.  Wherefore  the  holy  Roman 
Church,  for  his  merit  consecrated  by  the  voice  of  the  Lord, 
and  strengthened  by  the  authority  of  the  holy  fathers,  holds 
the  primacy  of  all  the  churches;  and  to  her,  as  to  the  head, 
are  ever  to  be  referred  as  well  the  most  important  affairs  of 
the  bishops,  alike  their  judgments  and  complaints,  as  the  more 
important  questions  of  the  Churches.  For  even  he  who  knows 
that  he  is  placed  over  others  should  not  take  it  ill  that  one  is 
placed  over  him  ;  for  the  Church  herself  which  is  first  (the 
Roman)  hath  so  intrusted  the  administration  of  her  affairs  to 
other  churches,  that  they  are  called  to  share  her  anxious  care, 
not  the  plenitude  of  her  power."  (This  remarkable  expression 
is  bo/rowed  from  Leo  L,  Ep.  xii.  ad  A/iastas.  Thessal.)  ( Vigilii 
Ep.  ad  Profiit.  vii.) 

"  This  apostolical  seat  was  constituted  by  the  Lord  Himself, 
and  by  no  other,  the  hinge  and  head  of  all  churches.  And  as 
by  the  hinge  the  door  is  ruled,  so  by  the  authority  of  this  holy 
see  all  churches  are  ruled  according  to  the  Lord's  arrangement. 
{Anaclet.  i.  Ep.  iii.)  In  the  New  Testament,  after  Christ  the 
Lord,  sacerdotal  order  begins  from  Peter,  because  to  him  first 
the  pontificate  in  the  Church  of  Christ  was  given.  {Matt.  xvi. 
1 8.)  He  first  of  all  received  from  the  Lord  the  power  of 
binding  and  loosing.  The  other  apostles  indeed  received 
honor  and  power  in  an  equal  fellowship  with  him,  but  him 
they  desired  to  be  their  prince.  .  .  .  When  they  died,  the 
bishops  succeeded  in  their  place."  {Id.  Ep.  Gratian,  i.  xxi.  2.) 

In  the  practical  application  of  the  principles  thus  promul- 
gated, the  pontificate  of  Gregory  VII.  stands  pre-eminent. 
Under  the  vigorous  administration  of  this  prince  of  pontiffs, 
,_^    the  united  dogmas  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope 

Gregory  VII.,  ,         ^,  ,  ,        ^      ,         ^,  ,  f 

1073-85.      °^^^  ^"^   Church,   and    of  the    Church  over  the 

State  —  the   latter,    for   the    most    part,    hitherto 

undeveloped  —  first  assumed    the  form  of  a  fully  organized 

system.      The    Epistles    of  Gregory  [No.  25]  furnish  a   full 

delineation    of    the    system    in   the    most    authentic    form. 


SUPREMACY    OF    THE    CHURCH     OVER    THE    STATE.       lOI 

Thus,  in  a  letter  written  in  the  fourth  year  of  his  pontificate 

(1076):    "When  God    gave  to  blessed  Peter,  in 

chief,  the  power  of  bindincr  and  loosing:  in  heaven  '  "P'''^"^^'^y^ 

'  ,         rr  /  •  rr  ■    ,  T      ,   T  tllC  Cluirch 

and  on  earth,  ne  made  no  exception  ;  licivitlilield  no-  ^^^^  ^\^^  '6\.Vi\.^. 
tiling  from  his  poivcr.  For  if  any  one  denies  that  he 
can  be  bound  by  the  chain  of  the  Church,  he  denies  also,  in 
effect,  that  he  can  be  absolved  by  its  power.  And  he  who  impu- 
dently denies  this  wholly  separates  himself  from  Christ.  For 
if  the  holy  apostolical  see,  in  virtue  of  the  princely  power 
divinely  conferred  upon  it,  by  its  decrees  determines  spiritual 
matters,  why  not  also  secular  matters  ?"  (Lib.  iv.  Ep.  2.)  And 
five  years  later  (1081)  he  writes:  "Shall  the  regal  dignity, 
held  as  it  is  even  by  men  ignorant  of  God,  not  be  subject  to 
that  dignity  (the  sacerdotal)  which  the  providence  of  Almighty 
God  has  instituted  for  his  own  honor,  and  in  mercy  bestowed 
on  the  world  ?  The  Son  of  God,  as  He  is  undoubtingly 
believed  to  be  God  and  man,  so  is  He  regarded  as  High 
Priest,  Head  of  all  priests,  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Father,  ever  making  intercession  for  us.  He  looks  down  with 
contempt  on  worldly  dominion,  which  the  children  of  the 
world  pride  themselves  upon,  while  He  freely  {spontancus) 
comes  to  the  priesthood  of  the  cross.  Who  knows  not  that 
kings  and  dukes  deduce  their  origin  from  those  who,  ignorant 
of  God,  and  actuated  by  the  prince  of  the  world,  even  the 
devil  —  by  pride,  rapine,  perfidy,  murder,  nay,  almost  ever>' 
species  of  atrocity,  have  usurped  dominion  over  their  equals, 
with  a  blind  cupidity  and  intolerable  presumption?  Who 
can  doubt  that  the  priests  of  Christ  are  to  be  esteemed 
the  fathers  and  masters  of  kings  and  princes  and  of  all  the 
faithful  ?  Were  it  not  a  miserable  madness  for  a  son  to  attempt 
to  subjugate  his  father  to  himself,  the  disciple  the  master:  to 
subject  to  unjust  obligations  him,  by  whom,  as  he  believes,  he 
himself  can  be  bound  and  loosed,  not  only  on  earth,  but  also 
in  heaven  ?  "  [Lib.  viii.  Ep.  21.) 

The  so-called  Dictates  of  Gregojy  VII.,  though  perhaps 
drawn  up  by  another  hand,  are  generally  regarded  as  express- 
ing the  views  of  Gregory,  and  may,  as  Gieseler  suggests,  be  an 


102         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Index  Capitiilonim  of  a  synod  held  under  him.  As  an  exhibi- 
tion of  the  Hildebrandine  system  in  the  most  authentic  form, 
they  may  appropriately  find  a  place  in  this  record:  "  i.  That 
the  Roman  Church  was  founded  by  the  Lord  alone.  2.  That 
the  Roman  Pontiff  alone  may  rightly  be  called  uni- 

Dictatus  1   /I  •   t        \  T-i         11  1 

GregoriiVll  versal  (bishop).  3.  Ihat  he  alone  can  depose  or 
restore  bishops.  4.  That  his  legate,  even  though 
he  be  of  inferior  degree,  takes  precedence  (of  bishops)  in 
council,  and  can  pronounce  sentence  of  deposition  against 
them.  5.  That  a  pope  can  depose  absent  (bishops.)  6.  That 
with  those  excommunicated  by  him  we  ought  not  to  abide  in 
the  same  house.  7.  That  he  alone  has  the  right,  as  necessity 
may  from  time  to' time  require,  to  make  new  laws,  to  assemble 
or  constitute  new  orders,  (novas  plebes,)  of  an  order  of  canons 
to  make  a  monastery,  and  e  contra;  to  divide  a  wealthy  bish- 
opric, and  to  unite  poor  ones.  8.  That  he  alone  may  use  im- 
perial insignia.  9.  That  all  princes  may  kiss  the  feet  of  the 
Pope  alone.*  10.  That  the  name  of  the  Pope  only  may  be 
recited  in  the  churches.  11.  That  the  name  (of  pope)  is  unique 
(belongs  to  him  alone)  in  the  world.  12.  That  he  has  au- 
thority to  depose  emperors.  13.  That  he  has  the  right,  neces- 
sity compelling,  to  translate  bishops  from  one  see  to  another. 
14.  That  he  can  ordain  a  clergyman  of  any  church  whatever, 
as  he  may  choose.  15.  That  one  ordained  by  him  maybe 
over  another  church,  but  may  not  perform  military  duty,  and 
ought  not  to  receive  a  higher  degree  from  any  (other)  bishop. 
16.  That  no  synod,  without  his  command,  ought  to  be  called 
general.  17.  That  no  chapter  and  no  book  be  held  canonical 
without  his  authority.  18.  That  no  judgment  of  his  ought  to 
be  revised  by  any  one,  he  alone  having  the  right  of  such  re- 
vision. 19.  That  he  ought  to  be  judged  by  no  man.  20.  That 
no  man  should  dare  to  condemn  any  one  appealing  to  the 
Apostolic  See.  21.  That  the  more  important  causes  of  any 
church  ought  to  be  referred  to  that  see.  22.  That  tJic  Roman 
CJmrcJi  Jias  never  erred,  nor  shall  it,  as  the  Scripture  witnesses, 
ever  err.  23.  That  the  Roman  Pontiff,  if  canonically  ordained, 
is,  beyond  doubt,  made  holy  by  the  merits  of  the  blessed  Peter, 

*Note  H. 


SALIENT    POINTS    OF    THE    PAPAL    SYSTEM.  IO3 

as  St.  Ennodius  and  many  other  holy  fathers  testify,  etc. 
24.  That  by  his  permission  or  command  subjects  may  accuse 
(their  rulers).  25.  That  without  convening  a  synod  he  may 
depose  and  restore  bishops.  26.  That  he  is  not  to  be  held  a 
Catholic  who  is  not  in  agreement  with  the  Roman  Church. 
27.  That  he  can  absolve  the  subjects  of  wicked  (princes)  from 
their  allegiance."  {Greg.  Ep.,  lid.  ii.,  Ep.  55.)  [See  App.,  No.  25.] 

In  this  remarkable  document  we  find  the  leading  features 
of  the  PAPAL  SYSTEM,  which  attained  its  complete  development 
under  Gregory's  successors  —  Alexander  III.,  (11 59-11 81,) 
Innocent  III.,  (1198-1216,)  Gregory  IX.,  (1227-1241,)  Inno- 
cent IV.,  ( 1 243-1 254,)  and  Boniface  VIIL,  (i 294-1 303.) 

Of  this  system  the  salient  points  are  the  following:  (a)  The 
Bishop  of  Rome  is  the  Vicar  of  Christ  upon  earth,  (b)  He  is 
the  universal  Bishop,  to  whom  alone  belongs  the  name  of 
Pope,  (c)  To  him  has  been  committed  the  pleni- 
tude of  power,  a  portion  of  which  he  intrusts  to  ^'^^^'^"^  P°'"^' 
the  bishops,  as  his  assistants,  (d)  He  decides  what  system 
position  these  assistants  are  to  hold ;  their  institu- 
tion, deposition,  translation,  depend  on  him  alone,  (e)  He 
can  compel  the  adjudication  of  every  cause  at  the  court  of 
Rome,  or  he  can  withdraw  it,  at  his  pleasure,  from  any  court 
to  which  he  has  committed  it,  in  order  to  assign  it  to  another, 
in  particular,  to  a  special  representative  of  his  own  person,  a 
legate,  who  has  precedence  over  all  other  official  persons, 
(f)  He  is  the  lawgiver  of  the  Church,  (g)  Without  his  permis- 
sion, no  synod  can  be  held,  (h)  He  is  infallible ;  his  decisions 
in  reference  to  matters  of  faith  are  final,  (k)  He  is  amenable  to 
the  judgment  of  no  man  ;  all  men  are  subject  to  his  judgment. 

As  the  Pope,  according  to  the  papal  system,  cannot  be 
judged  by  any  human  tribunal,  so  he  cannot  be  deposed.  A 
passive  resistance  is  however  justified  even  by  the  adherents 
of  this  extreme  view.  Thus  Bellarmine  :  "  It  is  lawful  to  re- 
sist a  Pope,  seeking  the  ruin  of  souls,  and  much  more,  if  he 
should  seek  to  destroy  the  Church ;  it  is  lawful,  I  say,  to 
resist,  by  not  doing  what  he  commands,  and  by  hindering 
the  execution  of  his  will."  {Dc  Poiitif.  Rom.,  lib.  ii.  29.)* 

*  Note  I. 


I04         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

From  the  time  of  Gregory  the  Papacy  assumed  a  new  rela- 
tion to  the  Church.     Not  only  was  it  now  the  prevailing  view 
that  the  form  of  the  government  of  the  Church 
ewreation     -^    •  ^^  diviuo  monarchical  —  as   it  had  been  set 

of  the  Papacy     ^      ,      .        ,        t.          i      t   •  i      •  i  11  1 

to  the  Church.    f"^rth  m  the  Pseudo-Isidorian  decretals ;  but  also 
that  it  is,  by  the  divine  appointment,  an  absolute 

despotism ;  all  other  ecclesiastical  authority  being  regarded  as 

merely  the  organ  of  the  Supreme  Pontiff,  and  valid  only  so  far 

and  so  long  as  he  may  choose. 

It  is  in  this  character  of  irresponsible  dictator  of  the  Church 

that  the  Pope  comes  prominently  before  us,  a  century  later,  in 
the  person  of  Innocent  III.     In  his  Epistles^  [No. 

Development  -^  jnnocent  puts  forth   claims    in   advance   of 

under  -^ 

Innocent  III.    those  of  all  his  predecessors;  not  too  lofty,  how- 
ever, it  would  appear,  to  be  at  once  very  gener- 
ally allowed.     Hitherto  the  Pope  had  been  content  with  the 
sufficiently  imposing  title  of  the  Vicar  of  Peter ;  Innocent  was 
the  first  of  the  Roman  bishops  to  assume  that  o^  the  Vicar  of 
God,  or  Christ,  and,  as  such,  to  claim  to  be  the 
^^,  °?^       sole  source  of  lawful  jurisdiction.     Thus   in  his 

named  Vicar  .  •  m  • 

of  Christ.  epistle  to  Faventmus  :  "The  supreme  pontiff  is 
called  the  vicar,  not  of  a  mere  man,  but  of  the  true 
God.  For  although  we  are  the  successors  of  the  prince  of 
the  apostles,  we  are  nevertheless  not  his  vicars,  not  those  of 
any  apostle,  or  man,  but  of  Jesus  Christ  Himself  Hence, 
whenever  we  remove  thoss  whom  God  hath  bound  together 
in  a  spiritual  connection  —  bishops  —  from  their  sees,  by 
their  resignation,  deposition,  or  translation,  it  is  not  man,  but 
God,  who  makes  the  separation,  since  we  are  not  man's  vicar, 
but  God's."  {Lib.  i.,  Ep.  326.)  Again:  "  It  is  not  man  but  God 
who  separates,  because  the  Roman  Pontiff,  who  fills  the  place, 
not  of  a  mere  man,  but  of  the  tnie  God  upon  earth  —  severs  the 
connection  not  by  a  human  but  by  a  divine  authority."  {Id,  Ep. 
335.)  He  moreover  describes  himself  as  citra  Deiim  tdtra  homi- 
nem  ;  and  minor  Deo,  major  Jwmine,  {Lib.  i.,  Ep.  326,)  and  claims 
to  be  invested  with  such  absolute  dominion  over  the  laws  that 
he  could  grant  dispensation  from  the  obligation  to  obey 
them.     Hitherto  dispensations  had  only  granted  pardon  for 


THE    SOURCE    OF    ALL    LAW.  IO5 

the  infraction  of  a  canon,  as  a  past  fact ;  now,  for  the  first  time, 
we   read  of  a  dispensation   for  future  transgres- 
sion :     "The   supreme   pontiff,  havin^r   admitted^    esstmn 

'     Got!  —  greater 

Others  to  share  his  sohcitude,  has  been  advanced     ^j^^j^  ,^^^,^ 
to    the   plenitude    of  power :    himself   lord   and 
ruler  (moderator)  of  canons,  he   does  a  law  no  injury,  if  he 
dispenses  with   it."  {Lib.  xvi.,  Ep.  154.)     "According  to  our 
plenitude    of   power,  we   are   able,   dc  jure  —  of    ^, 

^  ,.  .  .  ,  The  source  of 

right,  to  grant  dispensations,  supra  jus — above  all  law. 
right."  (Dccrct.  Greg.  III.,  tit.  viii.  4.)  On  this, 
as  embodied  in  the  decretals,  the  gloss  says :  "  The  Pope 
grants  a  dispensation  above  right,  since  he  dispenses  contrary 
to  the  apostle  and  to  the  canons  of  the  apostles,  as  well  as  to 
the  Old  Testament,  in  the  matter  of  giving  tithes,  and  in  re- 
gard to  vows,  and  oaths  —  yet  he  cannot  grant  a  dispensation 
contrary  to  the  universal  order  of  the  Church,  as  that  a  monk 
may  hold  property ;  nor  against  the  four  Gospels,  nor  against 
the  command  of  an  apostle  in  regard  to  those  things  which 
have  respect  to  articles  of  faith." 

The  episcopate  Innocent  represents  as  a  cession  made 
by  him  of  a  part  of  his  own  universal  pastorship  {Id.  Epp. 
495-6;)  —  a  view  of  the  papal  prerogative  explicitly  sup- 
ported by  the  canon  law,  in  which  it  is  affirmed  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff  that  —  "He  is  regarded  as  having  all  law  treasured 
up  in  the  repository  of  his  own  breast."  (Sexti  Dccrct.,  lib. 
i.,  ///.  ii.  I.)  =*" 

In  the  midst  of  the  prevailing  tendency  to  contemplate  the 
Church  exclusively  in  its  outward  aspect,  the  apostolical  idea 
of  the  mystical  body  of  Christ,  as  a  purely  spiritual  organism, 
and  the  notion  of  the  universal  priesthood  of  the  faithful,  which 
was  intimately  connected  with  it,  were  by  no  means  wholly 
lost  sight  of.  Hugo  of  St.  Victor  is  quoted  by  Hagenbach 
as  giving  more  or  less  definite  expression  to  views  of  this 
character:  "Christ  is  the  invisible  head  of  the  Church,  and 
the  whole  company  of  the  faithful  is  his  body.  The  Church 
as  a  whole  is  divided  into  two  halves,  (walls,)  the  laity  and 

*  Note  K. 


I06         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

the  clergy,  (the  left  side  and  the  right  side.)"     At  the  same 

time,  he  asserts  the  supremacy  of  the    spiritual 

"?!^  °    ^'   power  in  the  strongest  terms :  "  As  much  as  the 

\ictor,  ...  , 

1097-1141.  spirit  IS  above  the  body,  so  much  is  the  ecclesi- 
astical power  above  the  secular.  Hence  the  right 
of  the  former  to  institute  the  latter,  and  also  to  judge  it  when 
corrupt.  But  the  ecclesiastical  power  itself,  since  it  is  insti- 
tuted by  God,  can  be  judged  only  by  God,  when  it  turns  from 
the  right  path,  (i  Cor.  vi.)"  {De  Sacram.,  I.  ii.,  p.  3.)  The  Pope 
Hugo  moreover  acknowledges  as  the  Vicar  of  Peter,  (not  of 
Christ,)  to  whom  belong  "the  prerogative  of  being  served 
by  all  ecclesiastics,  and  the  unlimited  power  of  binding  and 
loosing  all  things  upon  earth."  (ii.  72.) 


NOTES. 

H. 

Kissing  the  foot,  as  an  Oriental  sign  of  homage,  came  into  the  West  through 
Constantinople.  It  had  often  been  rendered  both  to  emperors  and  bishops.  The 
Popes  now  claimed  it  as  a  proof  of  allegiance  belonging  exclusively  to  themselves, 
just  as  they  demanded  from  princes  the  performance  of  the  duty  of  an  equeriy  — 
holding  the  stirrup,  etc. 

I. 

While  the  Ultramontane  writers  (e.  g.  Baronius)  defend  the  genuineness  of  the 
Dictates,  the  Gallicans  hold  them  to  be  not  only  spurious,  but  also  at  variance  with 
the  principles  of  Gregory.  (So  Launoy,  Pagi,  A^atalis  Alexander-.)  Yet  it  is  ob- 
vious, as  Hardwicke  remarks,  that  "they  have  preserved,  in  a  laconic  shape,  the 
principles  on  which  his  policy  was  uniformly  based."  ..."  They  contain,"  says 
Neander,  "  the  principles  which  he  sought  to  realize  in  his  government  of  the 
Church  —  the  principles  of  papal  absolutism — signalizing  that  new  epoch  in  the 
histoiy  of  the  Papacy  which  is  to  be  attributed  to  him  as  the  author,  in  which  the 
jurisdiction  over  emperors  and  kings,  as  over  all  the  bishops  of  the  Church,  was 
placed  in  his  hands."  (See  Gieseler,  Hist.  ii.  §  47,  note  3.  Giesehrecht :  De  Gregor. 
VII.  Registro  emendando.  Regimont :  1858.) 

The  papal  prerogatives,  irrespective  of  the  temporal  dominion,  are  all  included 
under  the  two  heads  of  a  primacy  of  jurisdiction  and  a  primacy  of  honor  : 

I.  Primacy  of  Jurisdiction  includes  —  I.  The  representation  of  the  Romish 
Church.  As  representative  head,  the  Pope,  partly  in  his  own  person,  partly 
in  connection  with  the  cardinals,  has  the  care  of  the  interests  of  the  Church  at 
large. 


NOTES.  107 

2.  Supreme  legislative  power.  The  Pope  issues  decrees  relating  both  to  dis- 
cipline and  doctrine,  securing  for  them  the  assent  of  the  Church  by  means  of  a 
council,  or  in  some  other  way.  The  necessity  of  the  assent  of  a  council  is  not,  in- 
deed, acknowledged  by  the  papal  advocates.  Since  the  Pope,  when  he  speaks  ex 
cathedray  according  to  the  Church's  doctrine,  cannot  err,  every  member  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  is  bound  in  such  a  case  to  submit  to  the  decisions  of  the  Head. 
This  principle  has  obtained  recognition  in  our  own  day  in  the  establishment  of  the 
dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception. 

3.  Supreme  ecclesiastical  oversight.  The  Pope  regularly  receives,  from  time 
to  time,  accounts  from  all  dioceses.  The  bishops  pledge  themselves  by  oath,  at 
their  consecration,  to  present  themselves  for  this  purpose,  in  person  or  by  deputy, 
or  by  a  written  account  of  the  state  of  their  dioceses. 

4.  Supreme  government  of  the  Church.  This  embraces  the  decision  of  the  so- 
called  causa  arduce  et  majores ;  the  confirmation  and  consecration  of  bishops,  their 
translation  and  deposition,  the  acceptance  of  resignations,  appointment  of  coad- 
jutors, the  establishment,  division,  and  union  of  bishoprics,  grant  of  the  pallium, 
the  institution  and  abolition  of  spiritual  orders  and  ecclesiastical  institutions,  can- 
onization, identification  of  relics,  the  institution,  shifting,  and  abolition  of  general 
festivals,  etc.,  etc. 

II.  Primacy  of  honor  \\\&(X(\.q.'~>  —  I.  Precedence  not  only  of  all  spiritual  digni- 
taries, but  also  of  all  temporal  lordship.  2.  The  titles  of  Pope,  Supreme  Pontiff, 
Most  Holy  Father,  etc.  3.  As  a  special  homage,  the  kissing  of  the  foot  —  ado- 
ratio.  4.  The  insignia  of  the  Pope,  in  addition  to  the  complete  pontifical  vest- 
ments of  the  bishops,  and  the  pallium,  include  also  the  straight  pastoral  staff — 
pedum  rectum  —  furnished  with  a  cross,  while  the  episcopal  staff  is  crooked. 
[Jacobson,  in  Hertzog,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  90-2.) 

K, 

We  may  here  properly  advert  to  the  new  school  of  canonists  which  took  its  rise 
in  this  period,  under  the  name  of  Decretists,  afterward  Decretalists.  As  early  as 
tlie  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  appeared  the  collection  known  as  the  Decretum 
Gratia ni,  (1151,)  in  which  the  compiler  attempts  to  harmonize,  by  a  sort  of  Pro- 
crustean process,  as  indicated  in  the  title  of  his  work,  Concordantia  Discorda7itium 
Canoniitn,  the  older  canons  with  the  Pseudo-Isidorian  decretals.  The  rapid  mul- 
tiplication, however,  of  the  papal  edicts  —  in  the  course  of  a  century,  superseding 
more  and  more  the  ancient  usages  and  regulations  of  the  Church  —  rendered 
necessary  a  j^rt?;?^  compilation,  which  came  out  in  the  year  1 234,  under  the  sanc- 
tion of  Gregory  IX.,  in  five  books.  A  sixth  {liber  sixtus)  was  added  sixty-four  years 
later,  (1298,)  by  Boniface  VIII.,  and  a  seventh,  {liber  Septimus,)  known  as  the 
Clementines,  by  Clement  V.,  in  13 13.  With  the  seventh  book  "the  code  of 
canon  law,  as  such,  may  be  said  to  have  been  completed,  as  the  power  of  the 
Popes  has  not  since  been  such  as  to  lend  the  force  of  law  to  their  enactments 
throughout  Christendom." 

The  four  compilations  named  form  collectively  the  Corpus  Juris  Canonici, 
the  great  law-book  of  the  Church,  and  bulwark  of  the  papal  despotism  during  the 
media-'val  period. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Papal  Infallibility  — Statements  of  Leo  IX.  respecting  Indefectibility 
OF  Faith  in  the  Papal  See;  of  Innocent  III.;  of  Ivo,  Bishop  of  Chartres 
—  Thomas  Aquinas  affirms  the  Infallibility  of  the  Pope  —  Relation 
of  the  Church  to  the  State— The  Two  Swords — Plenitude  of  Papal 
Power  asserted  by  Boniface  VIII.  — The  Bull  Unam  Sanctam  —  Decree 
of  the  Council  of  Constance;  of  Basle — The  University  of  Paris  — 
The  Episcopal  System  in  the  Church  of  Rome. 

IT  is  in  this  period  that  we  meet  with  the  first  more  or  less 
indistinct  utterances  on  the  subject  of  papal  infallibility. 
Leo  IX.  seems  to  have  been  the  first  of  the  Popes  to  affirm 
the  claim  of  Peter's  successors  to  indefectibility 

Paoal 

Infallibilit        ^^  faith,  grounding  it  upon  the  text  ever  after  em- 
ployed for  the  same  purpose  :   /  have  prayed  for 
thee   that   tJiy  faith  fail  fiot.  (Lu.  xxii.  32.)      "This  prayer," 
writes    Leo,    ""  has  proved   effectual  in  so  far  as 
xr^,^  T^r\'      that  Peter's  faith  has  not  failed  hitherto,  and,  it  is 
believed,  will  not  hereafter  fail  i7i  his  throne^  to  all 
ages."  {Ep.  55.)  [No.  24.]    The  Dictates  of  Gregory,  as  we  have 
seen,  assert  the  inerrability  of  the  Roman  Chinxh ;  and  to  the 
same  effect,  in  his  Epistles,  Gregory  writes  :  "  The 
Indefectibility   Ro^^^n  Church,  through  blessed  Peter,  enjoys  the 
Pe°te/s  chTir.    pnvilege  of  being,  from  the  very  first  beginnings 
of  the  faith,  the  mother  of  all  cJiurches,  and  as  such 
it  will  always  be  held,  even  unto  the  end.     In  her  no  heretic 
is  known   to   have  presided,  nor,  as  we  trust,  resting  on  the 
Lord's  promise,  will  such  a  one  ever  be  placed  over  her.     For 
the  Lord  Jesus  says  :  /  have  prayed  for  thee,  etc'' 

So  also  Innocent  III. :  "  Unless  I  were  firmly  settled  in  the 
faith,  how  could  I  strengthen  others  in  the  faith  —  a  preroga- 
tive which  is  known  to  pertain   specially  to  my  office,  as  the 
108 


INFALLIBILITY     DENIED.  IO9 

Lord  declares:  I  have  prayed  for  thee,  Peter,  etc.  He  prayed 
and  obtained  his  petition,  since  lie  was  heard  in  all  things  fpr 
his  fear,  (Heb.  v.  7.)  And  therefore,  the  faith  of  the  Apostol- 
ical See  hath  never  failed,  but  hath  ever  remained  whole  and 
unimpaired,  that  the  privilege  of  Peter  might  continue  un- 
touched." {Senn.  ii.  de  Consecrat.  Pontif)  And  yet  that  Inno- 
cent did  not  mean  by  these  strong  expressions  respecting  the 
indefectibility  of  the  faith  of  the  Roman  See,  to  teach  that  the 
Pope  is  absolutely  infallible  in  matters  of  faith,  is  plain  from 
his  words  in  another  place:  "Faith  is  necessary  to  me  in 
so  far  as  that,  while  in  regard  to  other  sins,  I  have  God  as  my 
judge,  in  regard  to  sin  which  is  committed  in  a  matter  of  faith, 
I  may  be  judged  by  the  Churchy  {Id.  Serm,  iii.) 

So   Ivo,  the  great   and  good  Bishop  of  Chartres :   "  If  the 
Roman  Pontiffs  enjoin  the  observance  of  things   opposed  to 
ev^angelical  or  apostolic  doctrine,  that  in  those  things  tJiey  are 
not  to  be  obeyed,  we  teach  by  the  example  of  the  apostle  Paul, 
who  resisted  to  the  face  Peter,  though  superior  to 
himself,  {sibiprcelato)  as  not  walking  rightly  accord-         o-i'i  j  =; 
ing  to  the  truth  of  the  gospel."  {Ep.  233.)     And 
yet  more  distinctly  to  the  same  effect  Gratian  :  "  The  Pope 
is  to  be  judge  of  all,  but  he  himself  is  to  be  judged  by  none, 
imless  he  be  fotmd  departing  from  the  faith!'  [Dist.  xl.  6  — 
taken  from  the  sayings  of  Boniface  the  Martyr)     And  Gratian 
himself,  after  quoting  a  passage   from   Gregory  III.,   boldly 
declares :  "  This  statement  of  Gregory  is  altogether  opposed 
to  the  sacred  canons,  nay,  to  the  evangelical  and  apostolic  doc- 
trine!' {Cans,  xxxii.,  qii.  vii.  18.) 

It  thus  appears  that  as  late  as  the  close  of  the  twelfth 
century,  the  Pope  was  considered  to  be  amenable    ^  ^  „., .,. 

r    ,       ^,  ,      /.  .  .  Infallibility 

to  the  correction  of  the  Church,  for  error  m  pomts       denied, 
of  faith,  and  that  the  personal  errors  of  the  Popes 
were  held  to  be  not  incompatible  with  the  infallibility  of  the 
Roman  Church,  or  the  Roman  See. 

It  is  not  until  the  middle  of  the  next  ccntur\^  that  we  meet 
with  the  first  explicit  assertion  of  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope 
in  matters    of  faith.      Thomas  Aquinas,    (1227-74,)  the  ac- 


no         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

knowledged  prince  of  mediaeval  theologians,  claims  the  dis- 
tinction of  first  plainly  propounding  the  doctrine  :  "The  judg- 
ment of  those  who  preside  over  the  Church  may  err  in  any 
matters  whatever,  if  respect  be  had  to  their  persons  only.  But 
if  the  Divine  Providence  be  considered,  who  directs 

Thomas       .  ,      ^.  i  •     tt    i      r-    •   • 

Aquinas.     "^^  Cliurch  by  his  Holy  Spirit,  so  that  it  may  not 

1227-74.  ^^^'  ^s  He  has  promised,  {yo/m  xv.,)  '  when  the 
Spirit  is  come  he  shall  teach  all  truth,'  that  is  to 
say,  concerning  things  necessary  to  salvation,  it  is  certain 
that  it  is  impossible  that  the  judgment  of  the  Church  universal 
should  err  in  those  things  that  pertain  to  the  faith, 
infallibility.  Hence  we  are  to  abide  by  the  judgment  of  the  Pope, 
judicially  pronounced,  to  whom  it  belongs  to  deter- 
mine de  fide,  rather  than  by  the  opinion  of  any  men,  however 
wise  ;  since  Caiaphas,  as  we  read,  though  a  wicked  man,  yet,  as 
being  high-priest,  prophesied.  {^John  xi.)  But  in  other  judgments 
pertaining  to  particular  facts,  as  when  the  question  is  concern- 
ing property,  or  crime,  or  things  of  this  nature,  it  is  possible 
that  the  judgment  of  the  Church  may  err  by  reason  of  false 
testimony."  [Quod  lib.  ix.,  art.  16.)  Again:  "  It  belongs  to  the 
same  authority  to  put  forth  a  creed  to  which  it  pertains  to 
determine  finally  those  things  which  are  of  faith,  that  they 
may  be  held  by  all  with  an  unshaken  faith.  But  this  pertains 
to  the  authority  of  the  supreme  pontiff,  to  whom  are  referred 
the  graver  and  more  difficult  questions  of  the  Church,  Hence  the 
Lord  says  to  Peter,  whom  He  constitutes  supreme  pontiff:  '/ 
have  prayed  for  thee,  Peter,  that  thy  faith  fail  not,  and  thou,  when 
thou  art  converted,  confirm  thy  brethren'  ...  To  put  forth  a  new 
edition  of  the  creed,  therefore,  pertains  to  the  province  of  the 
supreme  pontiff,  as  do  also  all  other  things  which  concern  the 
whole  Church,  as,  e.  g.,  to  convene  a  general  council.  By  his 
authority  a  council  is  assembled,  as  its  decisions  are  con- 
firmed." [Siunma,  Secunda  Secundce,  quest,  i.,  art.  10.) 

One  of  the  leading  questions  discuss^ed  in  this  period  was 
the  relation  of  the  ecclesiastical  power  to  the  secular,  or  of  the 
Church  to  the  State ;  a  relation  illustrated  by  the  favorite  com- 
parison of  the   two    swords,  in   allusion    to    Luke   xxii.  38 : 


PLENITUDE    OF    PAPAL    POWER    ASSERTED.  Ill 

Lord,  behold^  here  are  two  sivords ;  and  He  said,  It  is  owiigli. 
These,  according  to  some  writers  of  the  period,  represent  the 
ecclesiastical  and  the  temporal  power  as  in  different  hands ; 
while  others  contend  that  the  two  are  united  in  the  hand  of 
Peter.  The  former  view  was,  very  naturally,  main- 
tained by  the  emperors  and  their  adherents;  the  delation  of 
,111  r    1  1  X  the  Church 

latter  by  the  advocates  of  the  papal  system.    John    to  the  State 
OF  Salisbury,  (1164-82,)  on  the  one  hand,  main- 
tained that  both   the  swords  are  in  the  hands  of  the  Pope, 
but  yet  that  the  Pope  ought  to  wield  the  secular  sword  by  the 
arm  of  the  emperor. 

The  Emperor  Frederic  I.,  {Barbarossa,  1121-90,)  on  the 
other  hand,  referred  one  of  the  two  swords  to  the  power  of  the 
Pope,  the  other  to  that  of  the  emperor.  (In  letters  written  in 
1 157,  '60,  '(^J^  The  Emperor  Otto  maintained  the  same  posi- 
tion in  opposition  to  Innocent  III.  Since  it  was  Peter  who 
drew  the  sword,  [John  xviii.  10,)  the  advocates  of  the  papal 
system  inferred  that  both  the  swords  ought  to  be  in  o?ie  hand, 
and  that  the  Pope  had  only  to  lend  it  to  the  emperor.  Others, 
on  the  contrary,  as  the  author  of  the  work  entitled  Dcr  SacJi- 
senspicgel,  (12 16,)  insisted  that  the  power  was  to  be  divided; 
that  Christ  gave  only  one  of  the  two  swords  —  symbolizing 
the  spiritual  power — to  Peter;  while  he  gave  the  other — the 
symbol  of  secular  dominion  —  to  the  apostle  John.  The  op- 
posite view  is  defended  in  the  work  entitled  Der  Schwaben- 
Spiegel. 

It  was   not,  however,  until    near  the   closing  period  of  the 
mediaeval  age   that  the   assertion  of  the  Pope's  plenitude  of 
power  —  his  supremacy  alike  spiritual  and  secular 
—  was  carried  to  its  highest  point.     In  the  famous   ^^^"'tude  of 
bull  Unam  Sanctam,  put  forth  (1302)  by  Boniface     asserted. 
VIII.,  the  dogma  of  the  papal  supremacy  is  for  the 
first  time  unequivocally  asserted : 

"  One  holy  Catholic  and  apostolic  Church,  we,  impelled  by 
faith,  are  bound  to  believe  and  hold.  Therefore  of  the  one 
and  only  Church  there  is  one  body,  one  Head  —  not  two 
heads,  as  if  it  were  a  monster  —  namely,  Christ  and  the  Vicar 


112         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

of  Christ,  Peter,  and  Peter's  successor. . . .  And  in  this  power 
of  the  Church  there  are,  as  the  evangelical  narratives  instruct 
us,  two  swords,  viz.,  the  spiritual  and  the  temporal.  For  when 
the  apostles  say,  Behold,  Jicre  are  tivo  sivords,  [Lii.  xxii.  38,) 

namely,  in  the  Church,  the  Lord  does  not  answer, 
Sanctam      ^^  ^^  ^^^  much,  but  '  cuougJi!     Both,  therefore,  the 

spiritual  sword  and  the  material  sword  are  in  the 
power  of  the  Church.  The  latter,  indeed,  is  to  be  used/^r  the 
Church,  but  the  former  by  the  Church;  the  one  by  the  hand  of 
the  priest,  the  other  by  the  hand  of  kings  and  soldiers,  but  at 
the  behest  and  with  the  patience  of  the  priest  [ad  mitum  *  et 
paticntiam  sacerdotis).  But  one  sword  must  be  under  the 
other — the  temporal  authority  must  be  subject  to  the  spiritual 
power.  For  the  apostle  says,  '  There  is  no  power  but  of  God ; 
the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God'  {Rom.  xiii.  i.)  But 
they  would  not  be  so  ordained  unless  sword  were  under  sword. 
For  it  is  the  witness  of  truth  that  the  spiritual  power  has  to 
institute  the  earthly,  and  to  judge  it,  if  it  have  not  been  good. 
This  is  verified  by  the  prophecy  of  Jeremy  concerning  the 
Church  and  Church  power:  Behold,  I  have  set  thee  this  day 
over  the  nations  and  over  the  kingdoms,  etc.  {Je'r.  i.  10.) 
Hence,  if  the  earthly  power  errs,  it  is  to  be  judged  by  the 
spiritual  power;  and  if  an  inferior  spiritual  power  errs,  it  is  to 
be  judged  by  the  superior ;  but  if  the  supreme  spiritual  power 
should  err,  it  can  be  judged  by  God  alone,  not  by  man,  as  the 
apostle  testifies  :  The  spiritual  man  judges  all  things,  but  he  him- 
self is  judged  of  no  man.  (i  Cor.  ii.  15.)  Whosoever  therefore 
resists  this  power,  thus  ordained  of  God,  resists  the  ordinance 
of  God,  unless,  as  Manichaeus  feigns,  there  be  two  principles. 
. . .  Moreover,  to  every  Jiuman  creature  we  speak,  declare,  define, 
and  pronoimce,  that  to  be  subject  to  the  Roman  Pontiff  is  absohitely 
necessary  to  salvation  {pmnifio  esse  de  necessitate  salutis).'*  So 
Aquinas,  fifty  years  before :  '*  Ostenditur  enim,  quod  subesse 
Romano pontifici  sit  de  necessitate  salutisy  [Cont.  Error.  Grcec.) 

On   the  other  hand,  there  is  the  decree  of  the  Council  of 
Constance,  in  the  fifth  general  session  (April  6,  1415):  "The 

•*  This  is  found  in  Bernard,  De  Consid.  iv.  3. 


COUNCIL    OF    BASLE.  IT3 

holy   synod   declares    that,   lawfully   assembled  in  the-  Holy 

Spirit,  making  a  general  council,  and  representing 

the  Catholic  Church  militant,  it  has  power  immc-      °""^'    ° 

,.        ,      .  ^,     .  ,  .  ,  Constance, 

a  lately  from  Christ,  whom  every  one  without  ex-  . 

ception,  whatever  be  his  station,  or  however  ex- 
alted his  dignity,  even  the  papal  dignity  itself,  is  bound  to  obey 
in  those  things  that  pertain  to  faith  and  the  extirpation  of 
schism,  and  the  general  reformation  of  the  Church  of  God  in 
the  head  and  in  the  members.  It  further  declares  that  who- 
ever, of  whatever  condition,  station,  or  dignity,  even  the  papal, 
shall  contumaciously  refuse  to  obey  the  mandates,  statutes,  or 
ordinances  of  this  holy  synod,  or  those  of  any  other  general 
council,  lawfully  assembled,  in  reference  to  the  things  above 
recited,  or  the  things  done,  or  to  be  done,  in  regard  to  them, 
he  shall  be  subjected,  unless  he  repent,  to  condign  penance, 
and  be  duly  punished.  ...  It  moreover  declares  that  Pope  John 
XXIII.,  and  all  prelates,  and  others  called  to  this  sacred  coun- 
cil, and  those  now  composing  it,  have  been  and  now  are  in 
plenary  liberty,  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  the  said 
holy  council,  nor  has  the  contrary  been  brought  to  the  notice 
of  the  said  persons  called  to  or  now  of  the  said  council."  * 

To  the  same  effect  are  the  decisions  of  the  Council  of  Basle, 
renewing  the  decrees  made  at  Constance  respecting  the  dig- 
nity of  general  councils,  and  the  subordination  of  the  Pope, 
and  asserting  in  the  strongest  terms  the  supremacy 
of  synodical  authority  in   the  Church.     Some  of    -g^gj^ 
the  leading  members  of  this  famous  synod,  among 
whom  the  celebrated  philosophical  theologian,  Nicholas  Cu- 
SANUS,  (1401-64,)  was  the  most  influential,  gave  expression  to 
opinions  which  threatened  the  total  subversion  of  the  papal 
system.     In  a  work  written  by  this  distinguished  advocate  of 
Gallicanism,  (so  called,)  entitled   De    Concordantia    CatJiolica, 
libri  iii.,  are  found,  among  other  explicit  utterances,  the  follow- 
ing: "A  universal  council  of  the  Catholic  Church  has  supreme 
power  in  all   things    above  the   Roman    Pontiff  himself.  .  .  . 
Although,  according  to  many  writings  of  holy  men,  the  power 

*  Note  L. 
8 


114         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

of  the  Roman  Pontiff  is  of  God,  and  according  to  others  is  of 
man  and  universal  councils,  yet  the  truth  seems  to  be  reached 
by  harmonizing  the  two  views,  thus :  The  power  of  the  Pope, 
so  far  as  regards  pre-eminence,  priority,  and  primacy,  is  of  God 
through  the  medium  of  man  and  councils^  to  wit,  an  elective  synod 
mediating. . . .  Whence,  although  the  Roman  Pontiff,  either  for 
his  position  as  occupying  the  seat  of  Peter,  or  on  account  of 
the  superior  dignity  of  his  city,  should  be  venerated  as  chief 
in  primacy  among  the  other  bishops  of  the  world,  nevertheless, 
unless  his  election  to  that  dignity  has  been  carried  by  the  con- 
current voice  of  those  who  are  the  representatives  of  all  others, 
(i,  e.  the  whole  Church,)  I  should  not  believe  him  to  be  presi- 
dent and  prince,  or  judge  of  all  others.  Wherefore  if,  by  any 
possibility,  the  Archbishop  of  Treves  should  be  chosen  by  the 
assembled  Church  as  its  president  and  head,  he  would  properly 
be  the  successor  of  St.  Peter  in  the  primacy,  rather  than  the 
Roman  Pontiff."  {Lib.  ii.  34.) 

In  the  same  strain  writes  to  the  council  the  University  of 
Paris  :  "  If  the  Roman  Pontiff  seeks  to  dissolve  the  council  by 

his  own  authority,  before  the  full  consideration  of 
"  Paris    °      ^^  subjects  which  it  has  undertaken  to  discuss 

and  settle,  we  think  that  in  this  matter,  saving 
the  authority  of  the  see,  he  ought  not  to  be  obeyed,  but 
rather  should  be  resisted,  if  need  be,  to  the  face;  even  as  Paul, 
the  doctor,  withstood  to  the  face  Peter,  the  Pontiff  P^or 
though  the  supreme  pontiff  has  the  place  of  pre-eminence 
and  presidency  in  the  council,  its  decisions  are  not  deter- 
mined by  his  will,  but  by  the  majority  of  concordant  judg- 
ments." {Ep.  Feb.  9,  1432,  in  Bulaei  Hist.  Univer.  Par.  v.  412.) 
In  these  utterances  we  trace  the  development  of  what  was 
afterward  known  as  the  Episcopal  system  in  the  Romish 
Church,  so  called  in  contradistinction  to  the  papal  system. 
While  the  two  systems  alike  hold  it  as  an  essential  principle, 

that  all   authority  is  vested   in  the  clergy  —  the 
The  Episcopal  ,-    ,       ^,  1    ,     •  r    •    1  . 

s  stem  in      government  of  the  Church  being  of  right  commit- 

the  Romish    ted  to  the  hierarchy,  with  the  Pope  at  its  head  as 

Church.       the  organ  of  unity,  they  differ  in  regard   to  the 


THE    EPISCOPAL    SYSTEM.  II5 

relation  of  the  Pope  to  the  clerical  body  in  general,  and  to 
the  collective  episcopate  in  particular.*  The  latter,  as  we 
have  seen,  regards  the  Bishop  of  Rome  as  the  possessor,  by 
divine  right,  of  all  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  the  bishops  de- 
riving their  prerogatives  from  him.  The  episcopal  system,  on 
the  contrary,  regards  the  bishops  collectively  as  the  supreme 
ruling  power  in  the  Church,  deriving  their  authority  imme- 
diately from  God  ;  the  Pope  occupying  among  them,  for  the 
preservation  of  unity,  as  the  first  or  chief  bishop,  the  position 
of  a  privuis  inter  pares.  In  France  the  principles  of  the  episco- 
pal system  have  found  special  favor;  incorporated  in  the  Galli- 
can  code  of  ecclesiastical  law,  they  were  officially  affirmed  in  the 
pragmatic  sanction,  at  Bourges,  (1438,)  in  the  declaration  of  the 
Theological  faculty  of  Paris,  (1663,)  and  in  the  articles  of  the 
Gallican  clergy  approved  by  Louis  XIV.  In  the  Netherlands, 
the  episcopal  system  was  greatly  promoted  by  the  Jansenist 
controversies ;  and  especially  in  the  Austrian  Netherlands  it 
found  general  acceptance,  extending  into  Germany  itself.  Here 
the  Suffragan  Bishop  of  Treves,  Nicholas  von 
HoNTHEiM,  published,  under  the  name  of  Jtistin 
Febronius^  a  complete  exposition  of  the  episcopal  system  [No. 
504  b]  —  On  the  State  of  the  CJiiirch,  and  the  Legitimate  Power 
of  the  Roman  Pontiff  —  a  work  which  contributed  not  a  little 
to  the  general  diffusion  and  practical  application  of  the  princi- 
ples of  Episcopalism.  In  Austria,  particularly,  the  system  was 
promoted  by  numerous  publications.  Rome  has  ever  consist- 
ently repudiated  it.  Thus  the  Gallican  articles  of  1682  were 
condemned  by  a  bull  of  Innocent  XL  But  in  France,  notwith- 
standing Rome's  persistent  persecution  of  the  system,  it  still 
continues  to  have  a  large  body  of  adherents,  and  the  acts  of 
the  Government  are  from  time  to  time  conformed  to  its  prin- 
ciples. In  Holland,  the  archbishopric  of  Utrecht,  with  its 
suffragan  bishoprics,  perpetuates  its  existence  on  the  principles 
of  this  system.  Among  its  ablest  advocates  in  recent  times 
are  Vox  Droste-Hulshoff,  Principles  of  General  CJiiirch  Lazv^ 
Munster,   1830;  Brendel,  Manual  of  Church  Law,  Bamberg, 

*  Note  M. 


Il6         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

1839;  NuiTZ,  Juris  Ecclcsiastici  Institutiojies,  Turin,  1 844;  and 
I?i  Jus  Ecclcsiasticiun  Univcrsiiin  Tractationcs,  Turin,  1 850  — 
condemned  by  the  papal  brief  of  August  22,  185 1. 


NOTES. 

L. 

Among  the  decrees  of  this  council,  this  has  always  been  particularly  offensive 
to  the  Ultramontanes,  who  deny  its  validity  ;  (CajetaN,  De  Auctoritate  Papiz  et 
Concilii ;  Bellarmine,  De  Conciliis  et  Ecclesia,  lib.  ii.  19;  ANDREAS  Vallius, 
De  Supretna  Potestate  Fapce,  Pt.  iv.  2.7;)  —  the  Gallicans,  on  the  other  hand,  main- 
taining it;  (Maimbourg,  Traite  Hist,  de  P etablissement  et  des  Prerogatives  de 
r Eglise  de  Rome  et  de  ses  Eveques,  Paris,  1 685;  Du  PiN,  De  Antiqua  Ecclesice 
Disciplina  ;  Natalis  Alexander,  Hist.  Eccl.  -Scec.  xv.  xvi.) 

M. 
Walter,  (Lehrbuch  des  Kirchenrechts,)  as  quoted  by  Jacobson,  distinguishes 
three  systems  :  "  Some  regard  the  Pope  and  the  Church  as  one,  in  the  strictly 
monarchical  sense,  holding  that  all  power  in  the  Church  proceeds  from  the  Pope 
alone.  This  doctrine  is  named  the  papal  system.  Others  ascribe  the  supreme 
power  to  the  bishops  as  a  collective  whole,  so  that  the  Pope,  as  over  against  them, 
is  not  the  first,  but  is  subordinate  to  them.  This  theory  is  called  the  episcopal 
system.  Others  again  —  and  this  is  unquestionably  the  correct  view  —  consider  t  he 
Pope  and  the  bishops  as  standing  to  each  other  in  the  relation  of  the  head  to  the 
members,  so  that  the  plenitude  of  power  rests  in  the  collective  body  of  the  epis- 
copate, while  the  Pope  is  yet  ever  the  head  and  the  highest  authority  to  the 
bishops  individually,  as  well  as  collectively."  {Hertzog,  Real  Encyc.  iv.) 


CHAPTER  X. 

John  Gerson  —  Distinction  between  the  Catholic  Church,  which  is  Infal- 
lible, AND  the  Apostolic  Church,  which  is  P'allible  —  A  Council  supe- 
rior to  the  Pope;  bound  to  restrain  the  Papal  Usurpations,  and  to  re- 
form THE  Church  —  Enormity  of  the  Papal  Claims  —  Account  of  Pre- 
vailing Theories  of  Church  Power —  Two  Extreme  Views — The  Third 
Theory  —  The  Independence  of  the  Secular  Power  —  Sovereignty  of 
General  Councils  —  Infallibility  of  General  Councils  defended  by 
Gerson  —  Definition  of  the  Papal  Supremacy  by  the  Council  of  Flor- 
ence. 

JOHN  GERSON,  chancellor  of  the  University  of  Paris, 
( 1 363-1429,)  in  a  Treatise  on  the  modes  in  which  the  Unity  of 
the  CJiurch  may  be  restored,  and  its  reformation  be  effected  in 
a  General  Coimcil,  [No.  38,]  published  in  the  year  1410,  draws 
a  distinction  between  "  the  one  Holy  Catholic  Church  and  the 
Apostolic  Church.  Of  the  former,  Christ  is  the  sole  head.  Of 
this  Church  the  Pope  cannot  and  should  not  be  called  the 
head;  he  should  be  called  the  Vicar  of  Christ  —  his  repre- 
sentative on  earth.  In  this  Church  every  man  who 
believes    may  be  saved,    even    thou^^^h    no    Pope    ^,      ,  . 

-'  o  i         Church  in- 

should  be  found  in  the  whole  world.     This  Church      fallible, 
can  never  err,  never  fail,  has  never  been  rent  by 
schism,  has   never  been  stained  by  heresy,   could   never  be 
deceived  or   deceive,  has    never  sinned.     In  it,   also,  all  the 
faithful,  in  as  far  as  they  are  faithful,  are  one  in  Christ. 

"  The  latter  is  called  the  Apostolic  Church,  particular  and 
private,  included  in  the  Catholic  Church,  composed  of  Pope, 
cardinals,  bishops,  prelates,  and  other  ecclesiastics,  and  called 
the  Roman  Church,  whose  head,  as  it  is  believed,  is  the  Pope, 
the  other  ecclesiastics  being  included  in  it  as  inferior  and 
superior  members.  This  Church  may  err,  may  deceive  and  be 
deceived,  may  harbor  schism   and  heresy,  may  even  fail  or 

117 


Il8        THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

come  to  nought.  This  Church  is  evidently  far  inferior,  in 
point  of  authority,  to  the  Universal  Church  ;  acting,  as  it  were, 
instrumentally,  in  the  use  of  the  keys  of  the  Universal  Church, 
and  in  exercising  its  power  of  binding  and  loosing.  It  neither 
has  nor  can  have  greater  authority,  or  the  exer- 
posto  ic      ^-g^  ^^  greater  power  than  is  conceded  to  it  by 

fallible  ^^^  Universal  Church."  {Cap.  ii.)  "If,  for  the 
sake  of  saving  a  kingdom,  a  king,  or  secular 
prince,  who  occupies  the  throne  by  right  of  immemorial  suc- 
cession, is  deposed,  much  more  may  a  Pope  be  deposed  who 
has  been  constituted  by  the  election  of  cardinals  —  whose 
fathers  and  grandfathers  before  them  hardly  got  beans 
enough,  perhaps,  to  satisfy  the  cravings  of  hunger,  (ventres 
implere  non  sufficiebant  fabis.)  Hard  indeed  it  is,  if  we 
must  hold  that  the  son  of  some  Venetian  fisherman  may  re- 
tain the  papacy  to  the  detriment  of  the  whole  church-com- 
monwealth. 

"  But  here  perhaps  you  refer  me  to  the  canon  law  which 
declares,  in  substance,  that  the  Pope's  power  is  so  holy,  so 
lofty,  that  no  mortal  may  presume  to  judge  or  depose  him, 
save  for  incorrigible  heresy.  {Distinct,  xl.,  Cti?i.  6.)  But  con- 
sider with  what  fraud  and  trickery,  in  ancient  times,  this 
office  of  the  papacy  has  been  administered  and  upheld  — 
the  Popes  usurping  rights,  and  consulting  their  own  interests 
instead  of  those  of  the  Church.  .  .  .  The  Pope,  as  pope,  is 
a  man,  and  as  a  man,  so  is  the  Pope ;  as  pope  he  may 
sin,  and  as  man  he  may  err.  He  is  therefore  subject,  like 
any  other  Christian,  in  all  things,  to  the  commands  of 
Christ.  That  decree,  therefore,  that  the  Pope  is  to  be  judged 
by  none,  is  not  to  be  admitted." 

"  The  papacy  is  not  sanctity,  nor  does  it  make  a  man  a 
saint,  though,  like  other  ecclesiastical  dignities,  it  may  exert 
an  influence  favorable  to  sanctity  in  the  case  of  the  properly 
disposed.  And  if  it  be  said.  The  Holy  Sec  citJicr  makes  a  saint, 
or  finds  a  saint ;  the  meaning  is  —  //  ougJit  to  find  a  saint.  It 
were  absurd  to  say  that  any  mortal  man  has  the  power,  in 
heaven  and   on  earth,  of  binding  and  loosing  from  sin,  and 


A    COUNCIL    ABOVE    THE    POPE.  II9 

yet  that  he  may  be  a  son  of  perdition,  simoniacal,  avaricious, 
mendacious,  an  exactor,  a  fornicator,  proud,  pompous,  and 
worse  than  a  devil."  {^Cap.  v.) 

**  Is  a  council,  then,  in  which  a  Pope  does  not  preside, 
above  the  Pope  ?  Certainly  it  is.  Superior  in  authority, 
superior  in  dignity,  superior  in  office.  For  such  a  council 
the  Pope  himself  is  in  all  things  bound  to  obey.  Such  a 
council  has  the  authority  to  limit  the  power  of 
the  Pope,  since  to  such  a  council,  representing 
the  Universal  Church,  the  keys  of  binding  and  Yq^^. 
loosing  have  been  committed.  Such  a  council 
may  abolish  papal  privileges,  (jura;)  from  such  a  council  no 
one  has  the  right  to  appeal  ;  such  a  council  may  elect  a  Pope, 
may  deprive  and  depose  him,  may  establish  new  laws,  and 
abolish  old  ones.  The  constitutions,  statutes,  and  rules  of 
such  a  council  are  not  to  be  changed,  dispensed  with,  or  re- 
laxed, by  any  authority  inferior  to  that  of  a  council.  Neither 
has  the  Pope  the  pov/er,  nor  has  he  ever  had,  to  grant  a  dis- 
pensation against  the  holy  canons  of  general  councils,  unless 
a  council  shall  have  specially  granted  him  such  authority  for 
some  weighty  reason  :  a  Pope  may  not  alter,  or  even  inter- 
pret, the  acts  of  a  council,  or  grant  a  dispensation  contrary 
to  them,  since  they  are  even  as  Christ's  Gospels,  which  are 
incapable  of  dispensation,  and  over  which  the  Pope  has  no 
jurisdiction."  {Cap,  ix.) 

"  A  general  council  representing  the  Universal  Church,  if 
it  desires  to  behold  unity  fully  restored,  if  it  desires  to  sup- 
press schisms,  to  put  an  end  to  divisions,  if  it  would  exalt  the 
Church  ;  first  and  before  all  things,  let  it,  after  the  example  of 
the  holy  fathers  who  have  preceded  us,  limit  and 
set  bounds  to  the  compulsory  and  usurped  papal        "^  ^^^ 
power  ;  —  a  power  which  many  supreme  pontiffs,  p^p^^i  power, 
through  a  course  of  ages,  have  arrogated  to  them- 
selves against  God  and  justice,  by  depriving  inferior  bishops 
of  the  powers  and   rights  conceded  to  them  by  God  and  the 
Church.     These  bishops  in  the  primitive  Church  were  of  equal 
power  with  the  Pope,  when  there  were  no  papal  reservations 


120         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

of  benefices,  no  inhibitions  of  episcopal  cases,  no  sales  of  in- 
dulgences, etc.,  etc.  In  course  of  time,  the  avarice  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  simony,  cupidity,  and  ambition  of  the  Pope 
increasing,  the  power  and  authority  of  the  inferior  bishops 
and  prelates  appear,  as  it  were,  exhausted  and  completely 
overthrown  ;  so  that  they  now  appear  in  the  Church  only  as 
painted  images  —  of  no  use.  For  now  the  Pope  of  Rome  has 
reserved  to  himself  all  ecclesiastical  benefices,  and  summoned 
all  causes  to  his  own  court.  .  .  .  All  ordinations  whatever  he 
will  have  performed  in  his  court ;  and  those  who  could  not 
find  ordination  in  their  own  country  readily  procure  it  at  the 
Roman  Court. 

"  Let  the  sacred  general  council,  then,  restore  and  reform 
the  Church  Universal,  after  the  usage  of  antiquity  ;  and  let  it 
limit  the  much  abused  papal  power,  as  set  forth  in  the  Decretum 
and  the  Decretals,  the  Scxtiis,  the  Clementines,  and  the  papal 
Extravagants.  For  Christ  gave  no  other  power 
th  Church  ^^  Peter  than  that  of  binding  and  loosing,  of  bind- 
ing by  means  of  penances,  and  of  loosing  in  re- 
mitting sins.  He  did  not  confer  upon  him  the  power  to 
bestow  benefices,  to  possess  kingdoms,  camps,  and  cities,  to 
deprive  emperors  and  kings.  If  Christ  had  conferred  such 
power  as  this  upon  Peter,  then  surely  Peter  himself  or  Paul 
must  have  committed  a  grievous  fault  in  not  depriving  the 
Emperor  Nero  of  the  empire,  knowing  him,  as  he  did,  to  be 
the  most  wicked  and  cruel  persecutor  of  the  Christians.  And 
who  has  ever  read  or  heard  that  in  ancient  times  the  Roman 
kings  or  emperors  were  accustomed  to  take  an  oath  before 
the  Pope?"   [Cap.  x.) 

Again,  in  the  sermon  which  he  preached  before  Benedict 
XIII.,  in  Tarascon,  on  New- Year's  Day,  1404,  entitled  Consider- 
ations on  Peace ^  Gerson  writes  :  "  Who  sees  not  how  impious  it 
is,  especially  in  those  who  would  be  called  ecclesiastics,  to  pay 
no  regard  to  the  counsel  of  those  who  are  skilled  in  the  evan- 
gelical law,  or  —  yet  greater  sacrilege  —  hold  them  in  con- 
tempt? Hence  arise  errors,  hence  presumptuous  assertions, 
hence   inexplicable  perplexities,  hence  obstinate   defence   of 


FIRST    EXTREME    VIEW.  121 

human  inventions,  to  the  ruin  of  the  Church  ;  such,  namely  as 
these  :  TJiat  it  is  not  lazvfid  to  dispute  concerning  the  poiver  of 
the  Pope  —  that  it  may  not  be  said  to  him :  Why  dost  thou  so  ?  — 
wJien  he  is,  nevertheless,  peccable ;  —  That  the  Church  may  not, 
in  any  case,  be  convoked,  or  convened,  without  him  ;  — 
That  this,  for  example,  is  an  article  of  faith  :  Bene-    Enormity  of 

/  •       •     7^  ~,  ,       ^  -^   -^   .  the  Papal 

diet  IS  Fope  ;  —  Ihat  the  Pope  may  not,  m  afiy  case,  claims. 
be  S7immoned  to  a  council ;  —  That  without  the  Pope 
there  is  no  salvation,  when  the  salvation  of  the  Church  depends 
absolutely  and  essentially  on  God  alone,  and  on  the  man 
Christ  by  ordained  law,  and  accidentally  only  on  a  mortal 
pope.  Otherwise,  when  the  see  becomes  vacant  by  the 
Pope's  death,  either  natural  or  civil,  as  when  he  is  deposed  as 
a  heretic,  what  man  could  be  saved?  Others  declare  the  Pope 
to  be  impeccable ;  others  omnipotent;  other's,  again,  believe  that  all, 
without  exception,  who  do  not  obey  him,  or  are  not  of  his  party, 
are  out  of  a  state  of  salvation.  How  great  the  temerity  of  these 
utterances,  let  those  who  put  them  forth  themselves  declare." 
[Consi defeat,  i.) 

In  a  work  written   during  the   sessions   of  the  Council  of 
Constance,  [No.  39,]  Gerson  gives  a  striking  account  of  the 
three  theories  of  Church  power  held  by  opposing 
parties  in  the  council,  and  representative  of  those 
of  the  age :  "  The    first,   depressing  ecclesiastical  Q-^^^^h. 
power,  subjects  it  to  the  temporal ;  the  second  ex- 
alts it  to  a  likeness  with  that  of  the  Most  High;"  the  third, 
occupying  middle  ground,  between  the  two  extremes.     The 
first  insists  upon  the  abolition  of  all  ecclesiastical  temporalities, 
immunities,  or  dominion,  on  the  ground  that  they 
are  forbidden  by  Christ,  (Z/^.  xiv.  33,)  and,  more-      ^  \. 
over,  that  ecclesiastics  are  incapable  of  temporal 
jurisdiction,  according  to  the  apostolic  axiom,  (2  Tim.  ii.  2,) 
that  the  clergy  should  possess  nothing  of  any  sort,  tithes  or 
oblations,  much  less  other  gifts,  except  only  such  as  are  be- 
stowed out  of  pure  charity;  and  that  of  these  the  clergy  who 
lead  unholy  lives  should  be  deprived  by  the  secular  power ; 
that  whatever  the  clergy  may  possess  beyond  simple  food  and 


Prevailing 
es  of 
power. 


122         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

raiment  is  the  property  of  the  poor,  the  retention  of  which  is 
not  simply  theft  or  robbery,  but  sacrilege ;  that  all  ecclesias- 
tical persons  should  be  reduced  to  the  primitive  poverty  of  the 
apostles  and  first  disciples,  as  of  necessity  to  salvation. 

"  The  advocates  of  the  second  extreme  view  exalt  the  power 

of  the  Papacy  to  the  most  extravagant  height,  declaring  that 

secular  power  is  nothing  compared  with  it ;  that  as  all  power 

in  heaven  and  on  earth  has  been  given  to  Christ, 

so   Christ  has   made  it  all  over  to  Peter  and  his 

extreme  view. 

successors;  hence,  that  even  Constantine  only 
restored  to  Pope  Sylvester  what  had  been  his  own,  before  un- 
justly withheld  ;  that,  as  there  is  no  poiver  but  of  God,  so  there 
is  no  temporal  or  ecclesiastical,  imperial  or  regal  power,  ex- 
cept from  the  Pope,  on  whose  thigh  Christ  has  written  King 
of  kings,  Lord  of  lords ;  that  to  dispute  his  power  is  tanta- 
mount to  sacrilege,  no  one  being  able  to  say  to  him,  WJiat 
doe  St  thou  f  even  if  he  should  change,  overturn,  and  bring  to 
ruin  all  temporal  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  powers  and  privileges. 

"  A  section  of  this  party,  however,  adopt  a  less  lofty  tone, 
conceding  to  the  secular  power  its  own  possessions  and  rights, 
which  the  Pope  cannot  take  away  at  his  pleasure,  acknowl- 
edging that  Constantine  or  other  princes  bestowed  something 
as  proper  gifts  upon  the  Church;  yet  holding  that  the  Chief 
Pontiff  is  supreme  monarch,  not  only  in  things  spiritual,  but 
also  temporal,  having  this  power  immediately  from  Christ, 
whereas  all  other  kings  and  princes  receive  their  right  of  rule 
from  him,  and  only  mediately  from  Christ.  Otherwise,  say 
they,  this  world  would  be  a  monster  indeed,  having  so  many 
heads,  not  under  any  one  single  government,  and  we  should 
have  a  return  of  the  Manichean  madness  of  two  principles,  one 
of  the  good  and  spiritual  things,  the  other  of  evil  and  tem- 
poral. And  therefore  as  the  body  is  on  account  of  the  soul, 
and  by  it  lives  and  is  governed,  so  the  secular  power  is  on 
account  of  the  spiritual,  from  which  it  derives  the  lawfulness 
of  its  own  being. 

"Another  section  of  these  extremists  adopt  a  j^et  lower 
tone,  conceding  that  as,  before  Peter,  true  governments  existed 


SECOND    EXTREME    VIEW.  I23 

among  the  infidels,  as  the  Scriptures  testify,  so  it  is  not  now 
necessary,  after  Peter,  that  all  power,  imperial,  regal,  or  any 
other  secular  power,  should  derive  its  validity  immediately 
from  the  Supreme  Pontiff.  But  as  to  ecclesiastical  dignities, 
offices,  and  goods,  these  are  all  to  be  held  subject  to  the  dis- 
posal of  the  Supreme  Pontiff,  to  be  changed,  transferred,  or 
appropriated  according  to  his  good  pleasure,  even  though  he 
should  do  so  without  a  cause,  nay,  not  without  committing 
sin,  though  sin,  in  this  matter,  it  is  denied  that  he  can  commit, 
so  as  to  incur  the  guilt  of  simony,  since  all  ecclesiastical  goods 
are  his  own  property.  It  is  further  held,  by  these  advocates 
of  high  papal  prerogative,  that  the  Pope  is  above  all  law,  hav- 
ing the  power  to  deprive  another  of  his  right;  that  there  is  no 
appeal  from  his  decision;  that  he  is  not  subject  to  a  judicial 
summons ;  that  obedience  is  not  to  be  withheld  from  him,  the 
case  of  heresy  excepted,  were  that  at  all  possible ;  that  he  alone 
has  the  power  to  frame  a  creed,  to  decide  on  points  of  faith, 
and  on  other  matters  of  chief  moment ;  that  whatever  is  de- 
fined, decreed,  or  determined  as  a  law  or  canon  by  others,  is 
of  no  effect  and  invalid ;  nor  can  anything  which  he  has  once 
determined  in  any  way  be  set  aside  or  infringed,  save  by  him- 
self, while  he  is  bound  by  no  constitution  whatever  framed  by 
others."  Gerson  adds :  "  I  am  deceived,  if  this  theory  of 
papal  power  had  not,  up  to  the  meeting  of  this  holy  synod  of 
Constance,  so  occupied  the  minds  of  the  majority  of  persons, 
that  an  asserter  of  opposite  views  would  have  been  spotted, 
if  not  condemned  for  heretical  pravity.  Here  is  the  proof: 
After  a  declaration  from  the  principles  of  theology  clearer 
than  the  light,  and,  what  is  more  to  the  point,  after  the  deter- 
mination of  this  holy  synod,  men  are  found  who  do  not  shrink 
from  openly  asserting  such  views ;  so  deeply  rooted,  and,  as  a 
creeping  cancer,  so  imbedded  in  the  marrow  has  been  this 
deadly  virus."  i^Consid.  xii.) 

The  third  theory  asserts  the  independence  of  the  secular 
power;  the  supreme  sovereignty  in  the  Church  of  general 
councils  ;  to  which  is  ascribed,  by  the  greater  number  of  its 
advocates,  infallibility.     Of  this  view,  Gerson  himself  is  one 


124        THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

of  the  ablest  defenders :  "  The  ecclesiastical  power  of  the 
Papacy,"  he  writes,  "  does  not  possess  the  prerogatives  at 
once  of  earthly  and  heavenly  dominion,  so  that  it  can  at 
pleasure  dispose  of  the  goods  of  the  clergy,  and  much  less  of 
the  laity,  though  it  must  be  granted  to  possess  a 
iir   t  eory  ^^^^^^^  frovernins^,  directing^  and  re^i^ulative  power. 

defended  by    ^      ,      .  ^    .      ,        ^'  .       .^       ,       .  ^  ,       .        ^ 

Gerson  Ecclesidstical  power  m  its  plenitude  is,  in  the 
Church,  a  power  the  application  of  which  is  regu- 
lated by  the  Church  herself,  or  by  a  general  council  legally 
representing  her.  It  is  evident  that  this  plenitude  of  power  was 
given  by  Christ  to  Peter  for  the  edification  of  his  Church ;  as 
Augustine  speaks  :  T/ie  keys  of  the  Church  were  given  not  to  one, 
but  to  tinity  —  they  ivcre  given  to  the  Church, .  .  .  The  Pope  may 
be  judged  and  deposed  by  a  council."  So  also  Cusanus  :  "If 
the  universal  Catholic  Church  is  infallibly  guided  by  Christ's 
assistance,  then  it  necessarily  follows  that  whatever  be  its  con- 
clusion, with  the  concurrent  consent  of  all  Christians,  involv- 
ing matters  necessary  to  salvation,  such  conclusion  is  true. 
But  a  universal  council,  in  pronouncing  such  a  conclusion  with 
the  consent  of  all  the  faithful,  by  the  assistance  of  Christ,  and 
the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  pronounces  the  same  truly 
and  infallibly.  But  all  provincial  synods,  and  even  the  Roman 
Pontiffs,  are  not  vouchsafed  this  privilege.  .  .  .  Peter's  pre-emi- 
nence was  not  a  pre-eminence  above,  but  under  the  Church." 
(De  Cone.  Cath.  ii.  34.)  [No.  42.] 

The  dogma  of  the  infallibility  of  general  councils  found  pow- 
erful advocacy  among  theologians  after  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance.    Gerson  and  Cusanus  were  among  its  most  earnest  de- 
fenders.   The  infallibility  of  the  Universal  Church 

Infallibility   ^^^  maintained  as  an  article  of  faith  by  others, 

of   ceneral 

councils.  ^^^  repudiated  the  infallibility  of  general  coun- 
cils. These,  however,  were  a  small  minority  among 
the  leading  divines,  and  "  the  doctrine  of  the  infallibility  of 
general  councils  gradually  obtained  universal  ascendancy 
among  the  liberal  theologians,  as  the  counterpart  to  the  curi- 
alist  theory  of-the  infallibility  of  the  Pope."  * 

*  Gieseler,  iii.  322. 


COUNCIL    OF    FLORENCE.  125 

Of  this  view  Almainus  may  be  taken  as  the  exponent : 
"The  Pope  may  err  in  pronouncing  judicially;  (of  personal 
error  there  is  no  question,  as  this  is  known  to  all.)  The  pro- 
position is  proved  thus :  Two  Supreme  Pontiffs  have  made 
opposite  decisions,  even  in  relation  to  matters  of  faith,  there- 
fore one  of  the  two  erred  judicially.  The  antecedent  is  plain 
in  the  case  of  John  XXII.  and  of  Nicholas,  one  of  whom 
determined  judicially  that  Christ  and  the  apostles  had  no- 
thing, either  in  common  or  as  their  own  private  possession  ; 
the  other  pronounced  an  opposite  judgment,  as  may  be  seen  in 
their  Extravagants.  Again  :  Innocent  III.  and  Celestinus  pro- 
nounced contrary  judgments  on  this  proposition  :  If  one  of  a 
married  pair  fall  into  heresy,  the  other  who  abides  in  the  faith 
may  contract  a  second  marriage.  The  decision  of  Innocent 
III.  in  the  negative  is  found  in  the  chapter  headed,  Quanto,  De 
Divortiis.  The  decision  of  Celestine,  as  says  the  gloss  in  the 
same  chapter,  was  long  since  placed  in  the  Decretals :  de  co7i- 
versione  coujugatonnn,  at  the  end.  Further,  some  Popes  have 
determined  contrary  to  the  gospel,  as  Pelagius,  who  made  a 
constitution  that  all  the  sub-deacons  of  Sicily  a  suis  uxoribus 
abstinerent,  whom  they  had  married  when  in  minor  orders,  or 
should  cease  from  duty.  This  decision  (as  being  unjust  and 
contrary  to  the  gospel)  Gregory  I.,  his  successor,  annulled,  as 
appears  in  31  Dist.,  Canon  Ante  tiienniiun.  It  is  thus  suffi- 
ciently plain  that  the  Pope  may  err,  in  pronouncing  in  a  mat- 
ter of  faith.  It  follows  that  the  ultimate  determination  of 
questions  relating  to  faith  is  not  to  be  referred  to  the  Supreme 
Pontiff  .  . .  A  general  coimcil  cannot  err  in  matters  of  faith,  and 
thus  the  final  decision  in  these  matters  belongs  to  it!'  [De  Aiict. 
Eccl.  et  Cone.  Ge7i.  10.) 

The  hollow  triumph  ofthe  papal  despotism  over  the  churches 
of  the   East  at  the  Council  of  Florence,  brings  this  darkest 
period  of  our  history  to  its  fitting  close.     The  form  of  union 
promulgated  by  that  assembly  embraces  the  four 
leadiniT  points  in  dispute  between  the  churches  of    .  ^, 

^  ^  ^  of  Florence, 

the  Greek  and  the  Latin  communion,  viz.,  the  pro-        j^.g 

cession   of  the   Holy   Spirit,  the   addition   of  the 

cVdusQ  Filioqne  to  the  Constantinopolitan  creed,  Purgatory  and 


126         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

the  intermediate  state,  the  use  of  unleavened  bread  in  the 
holy  Eucharist,  ^  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Roman  See  and  the 
supremacy  of  the  Pope.  Of  these  questions,  now  declared 
definitively  settled  by  the  concordant  suffrages  of  the  fathers 
of  the  East  and  the  West,  the  "  definition "  of  the  last  in 
order,  as  above  named,  is  couched  in  these  terms :  —  "  We 
determine  that  the  holy  Apostolic  See  and  the 
P^pal  Rornan  Pontiff  hold  the  primacy  over  the  whole 
defined  world,  and  that  the  Roman  Pontiff  is  the  succes- 
sor of  the  blessed  Peter,  prince  of  the  apostles, 
and  the  true  Vicar  of  Christ,  and  the  head  of  the  whole 
Church,  and  the  father  and  teacher  of  all  Christians ;  and  that 
to  him,  in  the  blessed  Peter,  has  been  committed  by  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  the  full  power  of  feeding,  ruling,  and  governing 
the  Universal  Church  ;  as  is  also  set  forth  in  the  acts  of  the  oecu- 
menical councils,  and  in  the  sacred  canons.  Renewing,  more- 
over, the  order  handed  down  in  the  canons  of  the  other  ven- 
erable patriarchs,  that  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  be 
second  after  the  most  holy  Roman  Pontiff,  the  Patriarch  of 
Alexandria  the  third,  of  Antioch  the  fourth,  and  of  Jerusalem 
the  fifth ;  all  their  privileges  and  rights  remaining  intact." 
{Cone.  Labbei,  etc.,  xiii.,  p.  510;   Gieseler,  iii.  494.) 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Harbingers  of  the  Reformation  —  Doctrine  of  Wycliffe;  of  Matthias 
OF  Janow;  of  John  Huss;  of  John  of  Goch;  of  John  of  Wesel;  of 
John  Wessel. 

THE  harbingers  of  the  Reformation  —  Wycliffe,  Mat- 
thias OF  Janow,  Huss,  John  of  Goch,  John  of  Wesel, 
and  John  Wessel — are  one  and  all  in  substantial  agreement  in 
their  teaching  respecting  the  nature  and  powers  of  the  Church. 
The  statements  of  Wycliffe  in  regard  to  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  Church  in  its  idea,  and  the  Church  in  its  outward 
organization,  are  clear  and  precise:  —  **  Holy  Church  is  the 
congregation  of  just  men  for  whom  Christ  shed  his  blood. 
All  who  shall  be  saved  in  the  bliss  of  heaven  are 
members  of  Holy  Church,  and  no  more."  He  ^  j-^^ 
repudiates  the  theory  of  the  necessity  of  a  visible  ^^^  _g 
head  of  the  Church  :  —  **  Prelates  make  many  new 
points  of  belief,  and  say  it  is  not  enough  to  believe  in  Jesus 
Christ  and  to  be  baptized  —  except  a  man  also  believe  that 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  is  the  head  of  Holy  Church.  But  no 
apostle  of  Christ  ever  required  any  man  to  believe  this  of  him. 
And  yet  they  were  certain  of  their  salvation  in  heaven.  How 
then  should  any  sinful  wretch  constrain  men  to  believe  that 
he  is  head  of  Holy  Church,  while  he  knows  not  whether  he 
shall  be  saved  or  lost  ?  .  .  .  The  Pope  is  the  chief  Antichrist, 
pretending,  as  he  does,  to  be  the  immediate  Vicar  of  Christ, 
and  most  like  Him  in  life ;  when  the  fact  generally  is  that  he 
is  the  first  of  sinners.  So  long  as  Christ  is  in  heaven,  the 
Church  hath  in  Him  the  best  pope.  .  .  .  We  dare  not  put  two 
heads,  lest  the  Church  be  monstrous.  " 

The  clerical  office  Wycliffe  characterizes  as,  by  eminence, 

127 


128         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

the  preaching  office ;  holding  that,  according  to  primitive  in- 
stitution, the  orders  in  the  spiritual  office  are  only  two  —  that 
of  priest,  and  that  of  deacon,  (sacerdos  atque  diaconus.)  (Dial, 
lib.  iv. ;  Trialog.^  lib.  iv.  15;  De  Sacramento  Ordinis.)  \Bibliog. 
App.,  No.  28.] 

The  precursors  of  the  Reformation  directed  their  efforts  not 
so  much  to  the  correction  of  isolated  abuses,  as  to  the  reno- 
vation of  the  general  spirit  of  the  Church.  This  was  eminent- 
ly illustrated  in  the  career  of  the  forerunners  of  Luther  in 
Bohemia.  Among  these,  Matthias  of  Janow,  the  preceptor 
of  Huss,  is  too  important  to  be  overlooked.  His 
Matthias  of   yj^^ys  are   fully  expressed   in  a  work  only  frag- 

i-^So-ql  nients  of  which  have  been  published,  entitled : 
De  Regulis  Veteris  et  Novi  Testanicnti.  [No.  29  a.] 
Matthias  constantly  falls  back  on  the  fundamental  principle 
that  unity  in  the  Church  can  only  come  from  adherence  to 
the  Word  of  God:  —  "It  is  Jesus  Christ  Himself,  who  with 
the  Father  and  the  Holy  Spirit  ever  dwells  in  his  Church,  and 
in  each  even  most  insignificant  portion  of  it,  holding  together, 
sustaining,  and  vitalizing  the  whole  and  all  the  parts,  directly 
from  within,  giving  growth  outwardly  to  the  whole,  and  to 
each,  even  the  most  insignificant  part.  He  is,  therefore.  Him- 
self the  spirit  and  life  of  his  Church,  his  mystical  body.  All 
unity  presupposes  a  reference  to  some  principle.  But  that 
which  forms  the  unity  of  the  Church  is  the  one  God,  one 
Lord,  one  Master,  one  religion,  one  law,  one  precept.  All 
Christians  who  possess  the  spirit  of  Jesus  the  crucified,  and 
who  are  led  by  it,  are  the  one  Church  of  Christ,  his  beautiful 
bride,  his  body.  Those  only  ought  to  be  called  Christians 
who  are  such  in  reality  ;  merely  nominal  Christians,  whose 
lives  testify  against  their  profession,  should  rather  be  called 
anti-christians  :  a  hoop  hung  out  before  a  house  (in  Bohemia 
the  sign  of  an  inn)  still  does  not  make  the  place  an  inn,  if 
there  is  no  wine  in  the  house." 

Again,  "  All  rules  are  one ;  they  proceed  from  one  principle, 
and  aim  at  one  end.  They  do  not  obtain  their  authority  from 
themselves,  nor  are  thev  observed  in  the  Church  of  God  on 


THREEFOLD    FORM    OF    THE    CHURCH.  1 29 

their  own  account;  but  they  are  inseparably  included  in  the 
same  holy  law  of  Christ,  which  is  inscribed  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
on  the  hearts  of  believers,  which  binds  many  widely  separated 
nations  in  union  with  one  another,  and  makes  all  dwell  in  one 
set  of  manners  in  the  house  of  Jesus  the  crucified." 

The  views  of  Huss  are  fully  developed  in  a  special  treatise, 
Dc  Ecclcsia.  [No.  30.]  His  definition  of  the  Church  assigns  a 
marked  prominence  to  the  divine  purpose  in  election  :  "  The 
one  Catholic  Church  is  composed  of  the  predestinate  of  all 
times  —  the  whole  body  of  the   elect.     It  would    ,,     ^^ 

John  Huss, 

be  the  height  of  arrogance  for  any  man  to  assert,  x-^da-x^M, 
without  a  special  revelation,  that  he  is  a  member  of 
that  holy  Church,  for  none  but  the  predestinate  is  a  member 
without  spot  or  wrinkle  of  that  Church.  Well  may  we  be 
amazed,  therefore,  to  see  with  what  effrontery  those  who  are 
most  devoted  to  the  world,  who  live  most  abominable  lives, 
assert  their  claims  to  be  heads,  or  eminent  members  of  the 
Church,  which  is  the  bride  of  Christ.  Christ  is  the  all-sufficient 
and  sole  head  of  the  Church.  It  were  enough  then  to  say  that 
the  Pope  is  a  representative  of  Christ ;  yet  the  Papacy,  by 
which  a  visible  head  is  given  to  the  Church,  derived  its  origin 
from  the  Emperor  Constantine:  for  until  the  gift  of  Constan- 
tine,  the  Pope  was  but  a  colleague  of  the  other  bishops.  As 
the  apostles  and  the  priests  of  Christ  ably  conducted  the 
affairs  of  the  Church  in  all  things  necessary  to  salvation, 
before  the  office  of  pope  had  yet  been  introduced,  so  they 
will  do  it  again,  if  it  should  happen,  as  it  is  quite  possible  it 
may,  that  no  pope  should  exist,  until  the  day  of  judgment  ; 
for  Christ  is  able  to  govern  his  Church  after  the  best  manner, 
by  his  faithful  presbyters,  without  a  pope." 

Huss  distinguishes  a  threefold  form  of  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church:   i.  The  Church  triumphant,  consisting  of 
those  who,  havin^f  maintained  the  warfare  af^ainst    ^    ^^ee  o  ( 
Satan,   as    soldiers   of  Christ,  are    at  rest  in   the      church, 
place  of  beatitude.     2.  The   Church  sleeping,  that 
is,  the   predestinate  suffering  in  Purgatory.     3.  The  Church 
9 


130  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE     CHURCH. 

niilitOMt,  composed  of  the  elect  still  upon  earth,  on  the  way  to 
the  better  country. 

He  distinguishes  again  :  i.  The  community  of  the  elect.  2. 
The  nominal  Church  —  those  who  in  name  only  belong  to  the 
Church.  These  two  are  combined  in  one  visible  society,  of 
which  one  part  is  the  Church  in  t\-\Q  proper  sense,  the  other  in 
an  improper  sense.  3.  Those  who  neither  in  name  nor  reality 
are  of  the  Church,  as  the  pagans.  4.  Those  who  are  in  reality 
elect  Christians,  though  they  appear  to  be  without  the  Church, 
as  they  are  nominally  whom  the  minions  of  Antichrist  con- 
demn, (the  reformers,  probably  of  his  own  time.) 

To  Huss's  friend,  Nicholas  de  Clemangis,  (i  360-1430,)  is 
ascribed  the  declaration :  **  It  were  possible  for  the  Church, 
by  grace,  to  preserve  its  existence  in  the  person  of  a  single 
woman,  even  as,  in  the  season  of  the  passion,  it  is  believed  to 
have  continued  in  the  Virgin  alone," 

"Conceiving  the  unity  of  the  Church  in  the  more  free  and 
spiritual  manner  we  have  described,"  says  Neander,  "  Huss 
was  prepared  also  to  understand  more  clearly  the  multifarious 
ways  of  appropriating  Christianity,  determined  by  the  various 
peculiarities  of  individual  character;  and  it  is  a  fine  remark 
which  he  makes  on  this  subject  when  he  says  :  *  Some  love 
Christ  more  in  reference  to  his  divinity,  as  we  suppose  to  be 
the  case  with  the  evangelist  John  ;  others,  more  in  reference  to 
his  humanity,  as  is  thought  to  be  true  of  Philip ;  others,  more 
in  reference  to  his  body,  which  is  the  Church  ;  and  so  in  many 
other  relations.'  Here  we  find  characterized  three  different 
bents  of  Christian  experience  —  the  predominant  tendency  to 
the  Godlike  in  Christ,  the  predominant  bent  to  the  Human, 
and  that  to  the  revelation  of  Christ  in  the  Church." 

Among  the  forerunners  of  the  Reformation,  a  not  undistin- 
guished place  is  justly  assigned  to  John  of  Goch,  (1400-1475.) 
the  founder  of  a  convent  of  Augustinian  nuns  at  Mechlin.  In 
a  work  entitled  De  quatuor  Erroribns  circa  Legem 
John  of  Goch,  £.,^j,^^ii^^jj^  cf,  Diahgus,  [No.  44,]  he  traces  the 
doctrine  of  the  Church  back  to  the  simple  elements 
which  constitute  the  foundation  of  his  theology.     Love,  and 


THE    SACERDOTAL    LIFE.  I3I 

liberty,  which  spontaneously  springs  from  love,  are  with  him 
tlic  fanning  and  governing  principles  of  the  CJinrcJi.  "Chris- 
tianity is  the  religion  of  liberty,  and  as  the  Church  is  the  man- 
ifestation of  Christianity,  the  principle  which  reigns  in  the  one 
must  reign  also  in  the  other.  If  in  Christ,  the  Church's  head, 
the  most  perfect  liberty  is  manifested  in  union  with  the  most 
perfect  love,  then  must  the  same  spirit  which  animates  the 
head  pervade  also  the  body  and  all  its  members.  The  Cath- 
olic Church  is  Christ's  mystical  body,  of  which,  perfect  in  con- 
struction, Christ  is  the  head,  communicating  to  all  the  mem- 
bers life  and  motion.  As  Christ's  body,  perfectly  organized, 
it  must  needs  be  duly  proportioned  with  its  head.  It  were 
impossible  for  a  supremely  perfect  head  to  have  an  imperfect 
body.  In  the  Catholic  Church,  therefore,  there  must  be  that 
plenitude  of  perfection,  in  virtue  of  which  the  human  will, 
according  to  its  limited  measure,  is  conformed  in  all  things  to 
the  will- of  Christ.  The  chief  vocation  of  the  Church,  accord- 
ingly, consists  in  appropriating  and  propagating  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  and  in  the  practical  exercise  of  the  evangelical  life.  The 
evangelical  law,  the  law  of  love  and  liberty,  which  has  been 
given  to  the  Church,  is  all-sufficient  for  perfection.  Why, 
then,  has  the  Church  superadded  positive  enactments  ?  The 
Church  is  the  mother  of  the  faithful,  and  as  mothers  are  char- 
acterized by  warmth  of  affection  rather  than  by  vigor  of  intel- 
lect, so  the  Church,  in  some  of  her  enactments,  has  had  more 
regard  to  the  furtherance  of  piety  than  to  the  rules  of  discre- 
tion. Her  love  has  carried  her  beyond  the  bounds  of  pru- 
dence. Hence,  though  tlie  Church  militant  sometimes  errs,  yet 
her  ordinances  are  in  all  cases  designed  to  promote  the  high- 
est good  of  her  children."  {Dialog.  14-19.) 

In  regard  to  the  priesthood  he  uses  the  remarkable  language 
following :  "  The  sacerdotal  life  is  the  truly  and  simply  apos- 
tolical life,  the  highest  perfection  of  the  Chri.stian  religion;  the 
station  of  the  priest  being  the  very  highest  in  the 
Church    militant.     As    in    Christ,    the    head,   the     dotal  life ' 
priesthood  is  the  highest  of  his  dignities,  since  it 
is  as  a  priest  that  He  legislates  for  his  Church  and  governs  it, 


132         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

SO  in  his  body  the  highest  place  of  leadership  belongs  to  the 
priesthood,  whose  office  it  is  to  preach  the  Word  and  admin- 
ister the  sacraments.     The  consecration  of  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ  is  the  highest  of  all   functions ;   and  as  the  priestly 
order  is  empowered  to  perform  this,  the  highest  and  noblest 
act  of  the  Church,  it  follows  that  the  order  of  priest  is  the 
highest  of  all   orders   in  the   Church.     The    privileges    now 
accorded  to  the  bishop  which  are  wanting  to  the  priest,  such 
as  confirmation  and  ordination,  are  the  offspring  either  of  cus- 
tom, or  of  the  appointment  of  the  Church,  which  have  taken 
away  from  the  order  of  priests  mucli  that  was  confa^red  iipon  it 
by  Divine  institution^  [Dial.,  xx.  Gieseler,  iii.  467.  Ullman,  i.  122.) 
John  of  Wesel,   says   Luther,  "  ruled  the  University  of 
Erfurt  by  his  books,  and  it  was  out  of  these  that  I  studied  for 
my  master's  degree"  —  a  statement  from  which  we  may  infer 
the  extent  of  Wesel's  influence  in  preparing  the 
1420-81.     ^^y  ^^^  ^^^  German  Reformer.     His  views  of  the 
Church  and  ministry  we  gather  from  scattered  pas- 
sages in  his  work  entitled,  De  Ijidulgentiis,  [No.  45,]  and  more 
particularly  from  his  treatise  Dc  Anctoj'itatc,  Officio,  ct  Potcstate 
Pastornm  Ecclcsiasticonnn,  [No.  46,]  of  which  abstracts  are  to  be 
found  in  Gieseler  and  Ullman.     "  That  the  Catholic  Church 
is  infallible  is  a  mere  assertion,  in  support  of  which  no  proof, 
either   from    reason    or    Scripture,   is    advanced.     The    word 
Church  is  a  collective  name,  and  combines  the  idea  of  multi- 
tude with  that   of  unity.     The   unity  it   involves,  however,  is 
always  particularly  specified  by  some  adjunct,  as,  for  example, 
when  it  is  said.  The  Church  of  the  Saints.     In  that  case  it  is 
the  unity  of  holiness  which  constitutes  the  Church.     If  it  were 
said,  the  Church   of  the   wicked,  then  the  constituent  unity 
would  be  wickedness.     Or,  supposing  the  expression  to  be, 
the  Church  at  Ephesus,  then  identity  of  place  is  the  bond  of 
union.     These  definitions  occur  in  Scripture,  but  the  Church 
of  which  we  speak,  and  which  we  call  the  Universal  Churcli,  is 
not  mentioned  in  Scripture.     Universal  is  synonymous  with 
Catholic,  and   under  this   name  the   Church   figures  both  in 
the  Nicene  and  in  the  Apostles'  Creed.     As  the  Universal  or 


WESSEL.  133 

Catholic  Church  we  may  designate  all  who  believe  Jesus  to  be 
God  and  man,  and  the  name  Catholic  is  given  to  it  because 
the  preaching  of  Christ,  by  which  alone  faith  is  produced,  is 
spread  over  the  whole  world.  In  consonance  with  this  must 
the  proposition  that  the  Catholic  Church  cannot  err  be  under- 
stood. We  mean,  that  inasmuch  as  the  Catholic  Church 
embraces  tlic  Church  of  Christ,  which  is  founded  upon  a 
rock,  and  against  which  the  gates  of  hell  shall  never  prevail, 
and  inasmuch  as  this  Church  —  the  Christian  Church  in  the 
stricter  sense  —  is  holy  and  undefiled,  i^Epli.  v.  27,)  there  exists 
no  error  in  it,  none  at  least  that  is  self-induced,  because  that 
would  be  a  spot  or  wrinkle.  In  virtue,  therefore,  of  the  Church 
of  Christ's  being  a  part  of  that  which  is  Catholic,  the  propo- 
sition that  the  Catholic  Church  does  not  err  is  true.  The 
reason  of  its  truth,  however,  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  propo- 
sition is  ambiguously  expressed,  inasmuch  as  the  truth  of  it 
holds  only  in  regard  to  one  of  its  parts.  Coexistent  with  this 
(partial)  truth,  however,  there  is  another,  namely,  tJiat  the 
Universal  Cliiircli  does  err^  and  that  she  is  a  sinner,  an  adul- 
teress, the  reason  being  that  she  is  in  part  composed  of  wicked 
men."  [De  Iiidiilg,  lii.-liv.) 

Wesel  here  anticipates  the  Protestant  distinction  between 
the  Church  visible  and  invisible.  He  nevertheless,  at  his 
trial  for  heresy,  affirmed  that  the  Roman  Church  is  the  head 
of  all  churches  ;  that  the  Pope  is  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  and  that 
one  head  of  the  Church  is  necessary  ;  and  that  there  is  a 
difference  between  a  bishop  and  a  priest. 

John  Wessel  has  been  well  characterized  as  pre-eminently 

the    theolof^^ical    forerunner    of   the    Reformation. 

.  Wessel, 

His  teaching  on  the  subject  of  the  Church  is  con-      1420-89 

tained  in   several  treatises  published  collectively 

under  the   supervision  of  Luther,  in  the  year   1521  or  1522, 

entitled  Farrago  Wesseli,  etc.  [No.  48.] 

We  do  not  find  that  he  anywhere  lays  down  a  precise  defi- 
nition of  the  Church  ;  but  in  his  work  Quce  sit  vera  Coininiinio 
Sanctorum  ?  there  are  scattered  statements  from  which  it  ap- 
pears that,  in  his  view,  "the  Church  is  the  coniniimion  of  saints 


134  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE     CHURCH, 

—  of  all  persons,  that  is  to  say,  still  undergoing  the  process  of 
sanctification,  and  of  persons  already  perfected  —  subject  to 
Christ  as  their  one  true  Head,  a  society  instituted  by  God, 
receiving  laws  from  Him  alone,  and  founded  upon  mutual  love 
and  living  faith  in  Christ.  That  he  conceives  the  Church  as 
something  essentially  internal,  as  a  fellowship  of  holy  persons, 
whose  unity  rests  on  spiritual  grounds,  and  not  upon  connec- 
tion with  one  visible  and  supreme  head,,  is  evident  from  the 
passage  following:  —  'All  saints  are  bound  together  by  a  true 
and  essential  unity,  inasmuch  as  they  are  connected  with 
Christ  by  one  faith,  one  hope,  and  one  love ;  however  widely 
they  may  be  separated  by  time  or  place.  And  this  is  that 
society  of  which  it  is  said  in  the  creed  —  I  believe  in  the  Coni- 
mnnion  of  Saints.  Hence  all  our  forefathers  who  were  bap- 
tized with  the  same  baptism,  fed  with  the  same  spiritual  food, 
and  strengthened  with  the  same  spiritual  rock  as  ourselves, 
are  still  in  connection  with  us.  This  unity  and  fellowship  of 
saints  is  by  no  means  broken  by  the  difference  of  their  gov- 
ernors, such  as  obtains  in  the  Greek  and  in  the  Western 
Church  —  the  Greek  Christian  and  the  Roman  Christian  be- 
lieving one  and  the  same  gospel.  The  unity  of  the  Church 
under  one  Pope  is  therefore  only  accidental,  not  necessary, 
although  it  may  contribute  much  to  the  Communion  of  Saints. 

"  We  must  acknowledge  a  Catholic  Church,  but  we  must 
place  its  unity  in  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  (celestial) 
Head,  in  the  unity  of  the  corner-stone,  (Christ,)  not  in  the  unity 
of  Peter  or  his  successor,  as  the  Church's  governor.  It  is 
only  the  original  unity,  (prima  unitas  —  internal,  spiritual 
unity,)  under  the  one  true  Head,  that  is  spoken  of  in  the 
creed."  (De  Sacr.  Pa:n) 

The  position  of  Augustine,  expressed  in  the  well-known 
words  :  "  I  would  not  believe  the  gospel  if  the  authority  of  the 
Church  did  not  lead  me  to  believe  "  —  essentially  the  Romanist 
position,  in  so  far  as  it  makes  the  authority  of  the  Scripture 
dependent  upon  that  of  the  Church  —  Wessel  directly  assails, 
maintaining  the  opposite  principle,  (the  anti-Romanist,  or 
Protestant,)  that  the  Church  derives  its  authority  only  from 


ANTICIPATION    OF     LUT  II  ER  S  •  D  OC  TR  I  N  E.  I35 

the  Scriptures  :  *'  I  believe  zuith  the  holy  Church  ;  I  do  not 
believe  ///  it,  but  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  determines  the  rule 
of  faith.  With  the  holy  Church,  and  according  to  the  holy 
Church  I  believe,  but  not  ///  the  Church,  because  faith  is  an 
act  of  worship,  which  must  be  offered  to  God  alone." 

The  doctrine  of  the  universal  priesthood  of  the  faithful  is 
not  obscurely  expressed  by  Wessel  in  these  words :  **  There 
is  a  double  priesthood.  The  one  is  a  matter  of  rank,  and 
sacramentally  communicated;  the  other  is  a  matter  of  the 
rational  nature,  and  common  to  all.  Without  the  first  the 
second  is  sufficient.  The  first,  when  the  second  is  wanting,  in- 
volves even  guilt;  the  second  of  itself  brings  grace." 

The  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  Wessel  explicitly  denies  : 
"Even  Peter,  the  first  and  holiest  Pope,  erred,  that  so  the 
Church  of  after  times  might  know  that  she  is  not  bound  by 
the  decrees  of  her  sovereign  pontiffs,  but  that,  in  the  case  of 
any  emergent  variance,  a  believer  is  entitled,  by  the  example 
of  St.  Paul,  and  in  defence  of  the  rule  of  faith,  to  withstand 
the  Pope  to  his  face,  and  to  do  this,  if  there  be  no  alternative, 
even  in  the  presence  of  all."  {De  Indidg.  vii.) 

These  utterances  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  Reformers 
before   the    Reformation   are   such  an  anticipation 
of  those  of  Luther,  that,  in  passincr  from  the  one      "|^'P^'o" 

'  J^  ^  .0'  Luther's 

to  the  other,  we  are  scarcely  conscious  of  atransi-      doctrine, 
tion.     So  close,  indeed,  is  the  resemblance,  that  the 
great  Reformer  himself  declares  :  "  If  I  had  read  Wessel  sooner, 
my  adversaries  would  have  presumed  to  say  that  I  had  bor- 
rowed my  whole  doctrine  from  him.     Our  minds  are  so  con- 
sonant to  each  other." 


FOURTH    PERIOD. 

FROM  THE  PUBLICATION  OF  THE  AUGSBURG 

CONFESSION,  TO  THE  PUBLICATION  OF 

THE  "TRACTS  FOR  THE  TIMES." 

1 530-1840. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Statements  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  —  Altered  Phraseology  of  the 
Variata  —  The  Papal  Confutation  Fully  Answered  in  the  Apology  for 
the  Augsburg  Confession  — Loci  Theologici  — Views  of  Melanchthon 
ON  Church  Order  —  The  Episcopal  System  in  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Church  —  The  Territorial  System  —  The  Collegial  System. 

THE  closing  period  of  our  history  dates  from  the  pubhca- 
tion  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  *'  the  groundwork  of  all 
the  other  Protestant  symbols."     In  the  seventh  article  of  this 
venerable  formulary,  the  Church  is  defined  as  "a  congregation 
of  saints."     "  We  teach,"  say   the  Lutheran  Re- 
The  Augsburg  formers,/' that  one  Holy  Church  shall  ever  be  in 


the  world.     But  the  Church  is  a  congregation  of 


Confession, 
1530. 

saints  (in  the  German  version,  *  an  assembly  of 
all  believers,')  in  which  the  gospel  is  rightly  taught,  (German, 
*  purely  preached,')  and  the  sacraments  rightly  administered. 
And  for  the  true  unity  of  the  Church,  it  is  sufficient  that  there 
be  agreement  concerning  the  doctrine  of  the  gospel  and  the 
administration  of  the  sacraments  ;  nor  is  it  necessary  that 
the  same  human  traditions  or  rites  and  ceremonies  of  human 
institution  be  everywhere  observed."  "  Although  the  Church 
is  properly  a  congregation  of  saints,"  adds  the  eighth  article^ 
"  and  the  truly  believing,  yet  since  in  this  life  many  hypocrites 
136 


THE    PAPAL    CONFUTATION.  I37 

and  wicked  men  are  mixed  with  them,  it  is  lawful  to  use  the 
sacraments  which  are  administered  by  wicked  men,  according 
to  the  word  of  Christ :  TJic  scribes  and  Pharisees  sit  in  Moses' 
seat,  etc. ;  and  the  sacraments  and  word  are  efficacious  in 
virtue  of  Christ's  ordinance  and  command,  although  they  be 
ministered  by  wicked  men." 

The  altered  phraseology  of  the  Variata  (1540)  is  noteworthy  : 
**The  Church  of  Christ  is  properly  a  coni^rega- 

r    A     ■  \  .  The  Variata. 

tion  of  the    members    of    Christ,  that  is  to   say, 

'  ,  -"         1540. 

of  saints,  who  truly  believe  and  obey  Christ; 
although  in  this  life  many  wicked  men  and  hypocrites  are 
min^^led  with  this  congregation,  and  will  be  until  the  last 
judgment.  But  the  Church,  properly  so  called,  has  its  signs, 
namely,  the  pure  and  sound  doctrine  of  the  gospel,  and  the 
right  use  of  sacraments." 

The  fourteenth  article,  Of  CJiiircli  Order,  contains  the  simple 
statement,  that  "  no  one  ought  to  teach  publicly  in  the  Church 
or  administer  the  sacraments,  unless  he  be  rightly  called." 

"  The  power  of  the  keys  or  of  the  bishops  "  is  described  as 
"consistihg  in  a  commission  from  God  to  preach  the  gospel, 
to  remit  and  retain  sins,  and  to  attend  to,  and  administer  the 
sacraments.  This  power  is  to  be  exercised  exclusively  by 
preaching  the  word  and  administering  the  sacraments,  which 
are  the  means  of  conferring,  not  corporeal,  but  spiritual  bless- 
ings ;  blessings  which  can  be  obtained  only  through  the  in- 
strumentality of  the  office  of  the  ministry.  Hence  it  is  not 
competent  to  this  ministry  to  interfere  in  any  way  with  civil 
polity,  which  relates  to  matters  wholly  different  from  the 
gospel,  protecting,  not  the  souls  of  men,  but  their  bodies  and 
possessions  against  external  violence.  Hence  the  civil  gov- 
ernment and  the  ecclesiastical  ought  not  to  be  mingled  and 
confounded." 

The  feeble  attempt  of  the  Papal  Confutation,  (1530,)  pre- 
pared by  order  of  the  emperor,  to  condemn  these 
statements,  is  worthy  of  remark  only  for  its  sin-   ^    ^,    'T'^ 

.  .         Confutation. 

gular  lack  of  argumentative  force  ;    scarcely,  in-        ^ 
deed,  rising  above  the  level  of  a  plausible  cavil. 

"That  the  Church  is  a  congregation  of  saints  cannot  be 


138         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

admitted,"  says  the  Conft^tation,  "  without  prejudice  to  the 
faith,  if  it  be  meant  that  the  wicked  are  separated  from  the 
Church.  This  article  was  condemned  among  the  articles  of 
John  Huss,  of  accursed  memory,  at  the  Council  of  Constance, 
and  it  plainly  contradicts  the  gospel,  in  which  we  read  that 
John  Baptist  compared  the  Church  to  a  threshing-floor,  which 
Christ  will  thoroughly  purge,  etc.  But  what  is  meant  by  the 
chaff  but  the  wicked,  as  by  the  wheat  are  meant  the  good? 
And  Christ  compares  the  Church  to  a  net,  in  which  are  fishes 
good  and  bad ;  to  ten  virgins,  of  whom  five  were  wise  and  five 
foolish.  .  . .  When  they  confess,  in  the  fourteenth  article,  that 
no  one  ought  to  administer  the  word  of  God  and  the  sacra- 
ments in  the  Church  unless  he  be  rightly  called,  it  ought 
to  be  understood  that  he  is  rightly  called  who  is  called  in 
due  form  of  law,  according  to  ecclesiastical  sanctions,  and 
the  decrees  everywhere  hitherto  observed  in  the  Christian 
world." 

These  objections,  if  they  may  be  called  such,  are  fully  met 
in  the  Apology  for  the  Augsburg  Confession  (15 31):  "We  con- 
fess that  hypocrites  and  wicked  persons  may  also  be  members 
of  the  Church  in  external  community  of  name  and 

Apology  for        -^  i     i  i  ,  -      .    . 

the  Confession  office,  and  that  the  sacraments  may  be  admmis- 
tered  with  due  effect  by  wicked  men.  .  . .  The  Chris- 
tian Church  does  not,  hov/ever,  consist  only  in  a  system  of 
external  signs,  but  it  consists  chiefly  in  the  internal  commu- 
nion of  faith  and  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  heart.  It  has,  how- 
ever, external  notes  by  which  it  may  be  known,  viz.,  the  pure 
doctrine  of  the  gospel,  and  the  administration  of  the  sacra- 
ments in  accordance  with  the  gospel.  And  this  Church  alone 
is  called  tJie  body  of  Christ,  because  Christ  is  its  head,  and  he 
renews,  sanctifies,  and  governs  it  by  his  Spirit,  as  Paul  testi- 
fies (Eph.  i):  'He  gave  Him  to  be  head  over  all  things  to  the 
Church,  which  is  his  body,  his  fulness,'  that  is  to  say,  the 
whole  congregation,  *of  Him  who  filleth  all  in  all.'  Where- 
fofe  they  who  are  not  led  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ  are  not  mem- 
bers of  Christ.  Our  adversaries  also  acknowledge  that  the 
wicked  are  only  dead  members  of  the  Church;  and  we  cannot 


LOCI    THEOLOGICI.  I39 

but  wonder,  therefore,  that  they  should  reprehend  our  defini- 
tion of  it,  which  speaks  of  its  living  members.  The  same 
definition  is  given  in  the  Creed:  *I  believe  that  there  is  a  Holy 
Catholic  Church.'  But  the  ungodly  are  not  the  Holy  Church. 
The  following  clause  —  the  Coniinuiiioii  of  Saints  —  appears  to 
have  been  added  for  the  purpose  of  explaining  what  is  meant 
by  the  Church,  namely,  a  congregation  of  saints  united  in  the 
fellowship  of  the  same  gospel,  and  of  the  same  Holy  Spirit, 
who  renews,  sanctifies,  and  governs  them.  And  the  necessity 
of  this  article  of  faith  is  plain.  The  dangers  which  menace  the 
destruction  of  the  Church  are,  as  we  see,  number- 
less.    The  multitude  of  the  impious  in  the  Church  ^^  ^^^ 

,^  .  ,,.,.-.  T  .  ,    ,  Church  IS  an 

itself  IS  wellnigh  mnnite,  so  that  it  might  appear     article  of 
to  be  almost  overwhelmed.     Hence,  in  order  that        faith. 
we  may  not  despair,  but  know  that  the  Church 
will  abide  —  that  however  great  the  multitude  of  the  ungodly, 
the   Church   nevertheless   exists,   and  that   Christ  fulfils    his 
promises  to  his  Church,  remits  their  sins,  hears  their  prayers, 
gives  the  Holy  Spirit  —  this  consolatory  article  was  inserted 
in  the  symbol. 

"Although,  therefore,  hypocrites  and  wicked  men  are  mem- 
bers of  the  true  Church  in  the  fellowship  of  external  rites,  yet, 
when  we  give  a  definition  of  the  Church,  we  must  define  that 
which  is  tJie  living  body  of  Christ  —  that  which  is  the  Church 
both  in  name  and  in  reality." 

With  these  statements  framed  by  Melanchthon,  and  ex- 
pressly indorsed  by  Luther  and  the  other  leading  Reformers 
in  Germany,  it  will  be  instructive  to  compare  some  of  their 
author's  utterances  as  contained  in  the  later  editions  of  his 
Loci  TJicologici:  "When  we  think  of  the  Church, 
let   us   contemplate  the  assembly   of  the   called,    ^,,  ^°" .  . 

.  ,  .  Theologici, 

which  is  the  Church  visible;  ever  keeping  in  mind      ir-8-45. 

the  words  of  Paul:    Wliom  He  predestinated,  tJieni 

He  also  called.     Let  us  not  dream  of  any  of  the  elect  being 

elsewhere  than  in  the  Church  visible  itself;  for  it  is  God's  will 

neither  to  be  invoked  nor  acknowledged  otherwise  than  as  He 

has  revealed  himself;  and  He  has  revealed  himself  only  in  the 


140         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Church  visible,  in  which  alone  the  voice  of  the  gospel  is 
heard.  Let  us  not  feign  another  Church  invisible  and  dumb, 
yet  composed  of  men  living  upon  earth;  but  let  us  direct  our 
view  to  the  assembly  of  the  called,  (coetum  vocatorum,)  that 
is  to  say,  of  those  possessing  the  gospel,  and  let  us  be  assured 
that  it  is  necessary  that  the  word  of  the  gospel  be  proclaimed 
among  men ;  that  there  be  a  public  ministry  of  the  gospel, 
and  public  assemblies,  and  to  this  company  let  us  unite  our- 
selves;  let  us  be  members  of  this  visible  society." 

Not  less  clear  and  decided  are  the  statements 
of  the  Apology  on  the   subject  of  Church  Polity  : 

"In  regard  to  Church  order \nq  have  time  and  again  de- 
clared our  most  earnest  desire  to  maintain  the  (established) 
ecclesiastical  polity,  and  the  degrees  and  orders  settled  in  the 
Church  by  human  authority.  But  the  tyranny  and  cruelty  of 
the  bishops  toward  our  priests  prevent  them  from  acknowl- 
edging episcopal  authority,  and  have  brought  about  the  sub- 
version of  that  canonical  polity  which  we  were  most  desirous 
to  preserve.  And  we  now  again  reiterate  our  protestation 
that  we  would  gladly  preserve  the  ecclesiastical  and  canon- 
ical polity,  if  only  the  bishops  would  desist  from  tyrannizing 
over  our  churches ;  a  declaration  of  our  mind  and  will  which 
will  exonerate  us  before  God,  and  among  all  nations  to  the 
latest  posterity,  from  the  imputation  of  subverting  the  au- 
thority of  bishops,  whenever  men  shall  read  or  hear  that  we, 
deprecating  the  tyranny  of  bishops,  were  unable  to  obtain 
justice." 

In  the  exigency  thus  graphically  described  by  Melanchthon, 
the  civil  ruler  came  forward  to  assume  a  portion  of  the  episco- 
pal prerogatives.  Thus,  in  a  document  put  forth  in  the  year 
1530,  Duke  Albert  of  Prussia  makes  this  solemn  declaration  : 

"  When  we  saw  many  causes  of  importance  in  the  churches 
of  our  dukedom  too  little  cared  for  or  neglected  by  those 
whose  duty  it  was  to  adjudicate  and  settle  them,  that  all 
things,  as  Paul  to  the  Corinthians  admonishes,  be  done  de- 
cently and  in  order,  we  luere  compelled  to  take  upon  ourselves 
another's,  that  is  to  say,  the  episcopal  office,  in  order  that,  in  so 


EPISCOPAL   SYSTEM   IN   THE   LUTHERAN   CHURCH.       I4I 

far  as  it  could  be  done,  the  things  needing  correction  might 
be  changed,  and  reduced  to  a  better  condition."  {^Prcf.  to  a 
KircJiciiordtiuiig  of  1 5  30.)  "  What  the  duke  here  designates  as 
compulsion,  necessity,  was  fully  approved  by  the  Reformers. 
It  was  justified  by  an  appeal  to  Scripture  ;  civil  rulers,  it  was 
contended,  had  been  constituted  by  Christ  heads  of  the 
Church:  'The  prince,'  writes  Capito,  in  1537,  'is  pastor, 
father,  external  head  of  the  Church  on  earth.  Our  argument 
is  this  :  Christ  the  true  and  natural  head  has  ascended  into 
heaven  that  he  might  fill  all  things.  He  has  bestowed  upon 
pious  princes  the  gift  of  government,  giving  the  wisdom  to 
qualify  for  the  office  to  those  whom  he  constitutes  heads  of 
his  Church  upon  earth.'  " 

Circumstances,  however,  it  is  evident,  were  more  influential 
in  calling  forth  these  utterances,  than  the  real  convictions  and 
wishes  of  the  Reformers,  who  expected  no  better  results  from 
the  union  of  spiritual  and  temporal  power  in  the  hands  of 
civil  rulers  than  from  their  previous  concentration  in  the 
persons  of  the  bishops.  "  I  behold,"  says  Melanchthon,  in 
1530,  in  reference  to  the  overthrow  of  episcopal  government  — 
"  I  behold  in  the  future  a  much  more  intolerable  tyranny  than 
has  ever  obtained  before."  {^Corpus  Reform,  ii.  333.)  In  a  sim- 
ilar strain  Brentz  complains  :  "  Know  you  not  with  what  heavy 
burdens  the  clergy  are  oppressed  in  the  reformed  dukedoms 
by  the  officials  and  prefects  of  the  princes  ?  That  the  court 
should  ordain  the  ministry  in  the  Church  is  a  proceeding  far 
from  agreeable  to  good  men."  {^Ibid.  362.) 

It  was  the  earnest  and  constant  desire  of  the  Reformers  to 
keep  the  government  of  the  Church  separate  from  the  State, 
[Corp.  Rif  vi.  882,)  —  a  desire  they  were  powerless  to  carry 
out  without  the  co-operation  of  the  bishops,  who  were  im- 
movable in  their  determined  resistance  to  reform. 
Nothing  remained,  therefore,  but  to  transfer  the  '^'^^  Episcopal 
episcopal   jurisdiction    to   the    civil    rulers.     (See    ^^^^^"1^  ^" 

f     J        J      i  ^  the  Lutheran 

Gerhard^   Loc.   TJicol.  xxiv.    xxv.)     This    state   of      church. 

facts  explains  the  possession,  on  the  part  of  the 

civil  power  in  Germany,  of  episcopal  prerogatives.    A  scientific 


142  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

exposition  of  the  grounds  of  this  possession  was  first  under- 
taken by  Matthias  Stephani,  in  a  Avork  entitled,  Tractatns  de 
Jurlsdictiouc  (1611)  —  a  formal  defence  of  what  was  afterward 
known  as  tlic  Episcopal  System  in  the  Evangelical  Church.  The 
prince  is  here  declared  to  possess  the  temporal  power  inde- 
pendently, ywr/rd;'/';'/^,  but  the  spiritual  power  in  virtue  of  the 
imperial  grant,  (concessione  imperatoris ;)  inasmuch  as  the 
emperor  has  deposited  the  episcopal  jurisdiction,  suspended 
by  the  Peace  of  Religion,  with  the  princes,  ad  interim,  until 
the  final  settlement  of  religion  presupposed  in  the  Peace  shall 
have  been  effected. 

The  Episcopal  system,  as  thus  defined,  has  found  advocates 
in  many  theologians  and  jurists,  such  as  Carpzov,  (Jurispru- 
dcntia  Consistorialis,  fol..  Lips.,  1655;)  Stryck  (De  Principe 
quolibet  Papa  in  suo  Territorio,  4to,  Viteb.,  1690;  De  jure 
papali  Principum  Evangelicorum,  4to,  Halae,  1694.) 

"  The  Episcopal  system,"  says  Hofling,  "  has  been  accused, 
not  unjustly,  by  the  advocates  of  the  Territorial  system,  of  an 
hierarchical  tendency,  inasmuch  as  by  an  inadequate  distinc- 
tion between  church  government  and  church  office,  it  would 
claim  for  the  clergy,  wellnigh  exclusively,  the  potestas  in- 
terna, make  the  civil  magistrate  merely  the  executor  of  their 
decrees,  and  the  body  of  the  people  (the  status  oeconomicus) 
equally  quiescent."  (Grundsatze  Ev.  Luth.  Kirchenverfassung, 

§  350 

This  system  soon  encountered  a  host  of  adversaries,  and,  at 
the  close   of  the  seventeenth  century,  a  theory  was  promul- 
gated in  opposition  to  it,  which  is   known   as   the  Territorial 
system,  the  fundamental  principle  of  which  is  sim- 
„     .^^.  ,    ply  this:  That  the  so-called  Jus  Episcopate,  so  far 
system.      ^^  ^^  ^^^  be  Said  to  exist  at  all,  or  so  far  as  it  is  an 
ecclesiastical  authority,  is  coincident  with  the  Jus 
Rcformandi ;  that  the  civil  ruler  possesses,  as  a  prerogative  of 
his  position,  the  government  of  the  churches  within  his  realm. 
The  characteristic  feature  of  this  system  consists  not  so  much 
in  the  government  of  the  Church  by  the  State,  in  the  control 
of  the  Church  according  to  worldly  principles,  since  such  a 


THE    TERRITORIAL    SYSTEM.  I43 

control  actually  obtains  also  according  to  the  two  rival  sys- 
tems—  the  Episcopal  and  the  Collcgial — as  in  the  position 
that  the  government  of  the  Church,  belonging  to  the  civil 
ruler,  is  but  a  constituent  part  of  his  prerogative  as  lord  of  the 
land,  and  is  administered  as  a  branch  of  the  power  of  the 
State. 

This  system  was  first  fully  developed  by  Christian  Tho- 
MASius,  (165  5-1 728.)  In  opposition  to  the  theory  of  Puffendorf, 
as  put  forth  in  his  treatise  on  the  bearing  of  the  CJiristian  religion 
upon  civil  life,  (1687,)  that  the  State  rests  upon  the  basis  of  a 
compact,  while  the  Church,  as  a  Divine  institution,  is  inde- 
pendent, Thomasius,  though  not  denying  the  distinct  charac- 
ter of  the  two,  subordinated  the  Church  to  the  State  to  such 
an  extent  as  virtually  to  merge  the  former  in  the  latter.  His 
theory  was  further  developed  by  Brenneisen,  one  of  his  pupils, 
in  a  dissertation,  De  Jure  Principis  circa  adiaphora,  (1695  ) 
He  was  answered  by  Carpzov,  De  jure  decidendi  controversias 
theologicas,  (1695,)  conceding  to  the  magistracy  only  the  right 
of  giving  external  sanction  to  the  decisions  of  the  clergy. 
Brenneisen  replied  in  a  treatise,  often  reprinted,  with  additions 
by  Thomasius :  The  right  of  evangelical  princes  in  theological 
controversies  fully  discussed,  and  defended  against  the  Popish 
teachings  of  a  theologian  at  Leipsic,  (1696.)  A  large  number  of 
publications  in  defence  of  the  system  followed. 

As  developed  in  these  writings,  the  essential  principles  of 
the  system  are  these :  The  prince  is  bound  to  preserve  exter- 
nal tranquillity  and  peace  among  his  subjects  by  proper  com- 
pulsory measures.  But  to  such  external  peace  unity  in  religion 
is  not  necessary,  and  the  best  means  of  promoting  peace  is 
toleration,  since  even  those  who  have  a  confession  as  to  Cre- 
denda  do  not  maintain  unity  of  faith.  Every  one  has  to  de- 
cide for  himself  in  theological  controversies.  Confessions  can 
force  no  one's  convictions,  for  every  one  has  a  right  to  make 
his  own  confession,  and  the  symbolical  books  have  no  higher 
authority  than  other  books.  As  it  is  not  the  province  of  the 
prince  to  make  his  subjects  virtuous,  to  convert  them  to  the 
true  faith,  or  to  further  their  salvation ;  as  no  one  is  authorized 


144         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

to  decide  religious  disputes,  so  no  prince  has  the  right  to  force 
decrees  upon  any  one.  To  the  prince  it  only  belongs  to  prevent 
theological  controversies  from  disturbing  the  public  peace ;  to 
deprive  a  minister  who  teaches  false  doctrine  of  his  office ;  the 
question  whether  a  minister  abides  by  the  confession  of  his 
church  not  being  a  question  of  theological  controversy,  but 
simply  a  question  of  fact.  The  prince  can,  moreover,  forbid 
the  expulsion  of  an  erring  member  from  the  Church,  can  pre- 
vent the  imposition  of  new  confessions  on  the  people  by  the 
clergy,  and  other  things  of  like  sort,  for  the  preservation  of  ex- 
ternal peace.  A  heretic  is  liable  to  no  punishment  but  that 
of  expatriation.  [Jacobson,  in  Hertsog,  vol.  xv.) 

As  the  territorial  system  was  called  forth  by  the  extrava- 
gant claims  asserted  for  the  clerical  body,  so  that  system  in 
turn  occasioned  the  rise  of  an  opposing  theory 

The  Collemal         ,  .   ,  ,  ..... 

system  which  restored  to  a  proper  recognition  the  origi- 
nal view  of  the  Reformers :  that  the  government 
of  the  Church  belongs  to  the  three  orders  — clergy,  laity,  and 
magistracy,  (the  first  named  the  status  ecclesiasticiis,  the  second, 
the  status  ccconomicus,  third,  the  status  or  magistratus  politicus  ;) 
but  more  especially  to  the  laity ;  and  that  the  magistracy  ob- 
tained its  episcopal  rights  by  means  of  a  transfer  on  the  part 
of  the  Church  community.  This  is  the  so-called  collcgial  or 
confraternity  system. 

The  primitive  Christians  formed  what  were  called  collegia 
illicita^  and  after  the  age  of  Constantine  collegia  licita,  united 
with  the  State,  and  in  civil  life  subject  to  it,  but  differently 
constituted,  and  independent  in  the  management  of  ecclesias- 
tical affairs.  State  and  Church  have  since  remained  two  dis- 
tinct institutions,  though  they  have  at  times  usurped  each 
other's  functions.  The  Church  of  Rome  made  itself  as  it  were 
a  State,  claiming  for  itself  a  divine  institution,  and  declaring 
the  State  a  product  of  human  will,  based  on  a  compact.  The 
Reformers  contended  against  both  errors,  yet  not  with  the 
most  favorable  results.  As  under  the  Papacy,  the  Church 
had  become  a  Church-state,  so  now  the  State  became  a  State- 
church,  and  the  Evangelical  Church  lost  its  independence,  by 


THE    COLLEGIAL    SYSTEM.  I45 

substituting  the  secular  papacy  for  the  hierarchy.  An  ani- 
mated controversy  on  the  subject  sprang  up  in  France,  the 
Netherlands,  some  parts  of  Germany,  and  elsewhere,  both 
divines  and  civilians  entering  the  field. 

An  influential  work  in  this  controversy  was  the  treatise  of 
PuFFENDORF  already  named,  Dc  Jiabitu  rcligionis  ChnstimicB  ad 
vitam  civilcm;  maintaining  that  the  State  rests  on  a  compact, 
but  the  Church  on  a  divine  appointment;  that  the  Church 
should  appear  not  as  a  State,  but  as  a  collegium  quod  civitati 
subcst ;  that  the  Christianizing  of  the  State  has  neither  de- 
prived the  Church  of  its  collegial  character  nor  conferred 
episcopal  powers  on  the  magistracy  ;  that  kings  were  yet  cJiicf 
members  of  the  Church,  as  such  having  greater  responsibilities 
and  rights  ;  that  though  the  New  Testament  contained  no  ex- 
press precept  on  the  subject  like  the  Old,  [Dciit.  xvii.  18-20,) 
yet  the  prerogative  of  the  king  in  the  Church  flowed  from  the 
nature  of  the  civil  magistracy,  and  of  the  Christian  religion, 
or  from  voluntary  transfer  on  the  part  of  the  Church. 

This  exposition  was  followed  up  by  Christopher  Matthias 
Pfaff  in  his  Origines  Juris  Ecclesiastici,  (17 19.)  What  Puffen- 
dorf  failed  to  do,  this  writer  accomplished  in  establishing  a 
general  principle  in  regard  to  Church  government,  and  this 
on  the  basis  of  Puffendorf's  positions.  According  to  Pfaff,  the 
Church  is  "a  free  society,  not  having  the  form  of  a  civitas  or 
republic,"  and  therefore  not  admitting  of  the  division  into 
three  orders,  but  consisting  of  two  only,  teachers  and  hearers, 
the  Christian  civil  magistracy  belonging  to  the  latter,  and  not 
to  the  Church,  as  such.  The  rights  of  the  civil  power  in  the 
Church  do  not  belong  to  it  as  a  member  of  the  Church.  It  is 
bound  to  allow  its  subjects  to  form  societies  among  them- 
selves freely,  provided  they  do  not  injure  the  State.  Over 
such  societies,  however,  it  has  certain  rights,  such  as  that  of 
approval  and  ratification,  or  even  of  mere  toleration,  the  right 
of  general  inspection,  etc. 

In  the  special  application  of  this  principle  to  the  Church, 
which  is  of  the  nature  of  a  collegium,  only  these  three  things  are 
to  be   observed  :    i.  The  civil  power  cannot  forbid  Christian 


146         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

societies ;  this  would  be  contrary  to  the  divine  law.  2.  It 
cannot  put  such  restrictions  upon  them  as  impair  freedom  of 
conscience.  3.  It  cannot  assume  the  exercise  of  the  collegial 
rights,  unless  the  colleges  abandon  that  exercise,  or  transfer 
it  by  tacit  or  express  compact.  We  must  therefore,  distin- 
guish the  jura  saavrinn  Diagistratica,  belonging  to  the  magis- 
tracy as  such,  from  \h^jiira  colic gialia. 

Such  is  the  collegial  system.  Its  theor>^  of  compact,  its 
fundamental  principle,  is  unsound,  leading  in  the  subsequent 
abstract  application  of  it  to  the  most  injurious  results.* 

*  Jacobson,  Ibid.,  vol.  ii. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Views  of  Luther —  Harmony  of  the  Protestant  Confessions  —  TheCon- 
FEssio  Helvetica — The  Confessio  Saxonica — The  Confessio  Anglicana 
—  The  Confessio  Belgica  —  The  Heidelberg  Catechism  —  Statements  of 
Calvin —  Belief  in  the  Church  —  Two  Senses  of  the  Word  —  The  Min- 
istry—  The  Church  of  Rome — Grades  of  Ministers  —  Form  of  Ordi- 
nation—  Ulrich  Zwingli  —  Distinction  between  Church  Visible  and 
Invisible. 

THE  views  of  Luther  on  the  subject  of  the  Church,  its 
idea,  nature,  notes,  perfections,  ministry,  etc.,  are  very 
fully  expressed  throughout  his  voluminous  works,  in  a  vast 
variety  of  forms.*  With  him  the  question  of  the  Church  was 
a  fundamental  question  —  tJie  fundamental  question 
of  the  Reformation  :  —  "  What  is  the  dispute,"  he 
asks,  "  between  the  Papists  and  us  ?  Answer :  //  is  the  dis- 
pute about  the  true  CJiristian  Chuj-ch^  "  It  is  not  the  question, 
whether  we  must  believe  the  Church ;  whether  there  is  a 
Church  ;  but,  which  is  the  true  Church  ?  This  is  the  question. 
On  the  question  whether  there  be  a  Church,  we  are  at  one 
with  the  Pope ;  but  which  is  the  Christian  Church  ? .  .  .  this  is 
the  point  of  difficulty.  .  .  .  We  must  distinguish  the  true  Chris- 
tian Church,  which  is  the  true  Church  in  reality,  from  the 
Church  which  claims  to  be  such,  and  is  not. .  .  .  That  is  a 
Christian  Church  which  believes  in  Christ,  and  which  will  be 
saved  by  Him,  not  by  our  own  works  and  merits."  {Geist.  ?/. 
L.  Schrift.,  pp.  57,  6 1.) 

Luther's  statements  are,  in  substance,  coincident  with  those 
of  Melanchthon.  In  the  Larger  Catechism  (1529,  antedating 
the  Augusta?ia)  the  Church  is  described,  almost  in  the  lan- 
guage of  Cyprian,  as  the  mother  that  bears  and  nourishes 
every  Christian   through  the  word   of  God,  which   the   Holy 

*  Note  N. 

147 


148  THE     DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

Ghost  reveals  and  enforces."  ..."  Wherever  Christ  is  not 
preached,  there  is  no  Holy  Ghost  constituting  and  assembling 
the  Christian  Church.  The  Creed  calls  the  Church  a  coinimt- 
7iion  of  saints  —  terms  perfectly  equivalent,  meaning,  as  the 
clause  should  be  rendered,  a  Christian  community,  or  congre- 
gation, or  most  appropriately,  a  Holy  Christendom. 

tendom"^"  ^^^  ^^^^  clause  was  added  as  explanatory  of 
what  goes  before,  defining  what  the  Church  is, 
viz.,  a  holy  community  on  earth,  composed  only  of  holy  per- 
sons, real  saints,  under  one  head,  Christ,  called  together  by 
the  Holy  Ghost,  in  one  faith,  mind,  and  judgment,  endowed 
with  various  gifts,  yet  concordant  in  love,  free  from  heresy 
and  schism." 

In  these  definitions,  harmonizing  as  they  do  with  those 
contained  in  the  symbolical  books  of  all  the  other  churches 
of  the  Reformation,  we  have  the  first  authentic  expression  of 
the  distinctively  Protestant  doctrine  of  the  nature  of  the 
Church  in  its  earthly  essence. 

The  harmony  on  this  point  of  the  Protestant  Confessions, 
put  forth  in  the  Reformation  age,  is  illustrated  by  the  follow- 
ing citations.  First  in  order  of  time  after  the  Augiistana  is  the 
Confessio  Helvetica,  originally  published  in  the  year 
Tlie  Confessio  ^^^^^  ^j^.j^  ^j^^  express  indorsement  of  Luther  and 

J -,5  '  other  leading  Lutheran  theologians,  and  reissued 
in  a  revised  form  in  1566.  In  the  seventeenth 
article  of  this  formulary  we  read  as  follows:  "Since  God 
would  have  all  men  from  the  beginning  to  be  saved  and  to 
come  to  the  acknowledgment  of  the  truth,  there  must  needs 
always  have  been,  be  now,  and  exist  hereafter,  even  to  the  end 
of  the  world,  a  Church,  that  is,  a  congregation  of  faithful  men 
called  out  or  gathered  from  the  world  —  a  communion  of 
saints  —  of  those,  namely,  who  truly  know  and  rightly  wor- 
ship, through  the  Word  and  Holy  Spirit,  the  true  God  in 
Christ.  It  is  of  these  —  the  fellow-citizens  of  the  saints  and 
of  the  household  of  God,  sanctified  by  the  blood  of  the  Son 
of  God  —  that  the  article  of  the  Creed,  'I  believe  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church,  the  communion  of  saints,'  is  to  be  under- 


COXFESSIO    SAXONICA.  I49 

Stood.  The  Church  is  distinguished,  in  reference  simply  to 
the  diversity  of  its  members,  into  two  parts,  the  Church  mili- 
tant and  the  Church  triumphant,  the  former  yet  upon  earth, 
contending  against  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil,  the  lat- 
ter enjoying  the  rewards  of  victory  in  heaven.  These  two, 
however,  maintain  communion  with  each  other. 

"  The  Church  has  one  only  head,  and  can  have  no  other, 
Christ.  For  as  the  Church  is  a  spiritual  body,  it  must  have  a 
spiritual  head  in  congruity  with  itself  We  therefore  condemn 
the  doctrine  of  the  Roman  clergy,  who  make  their  Pontiff  the 
universal  pastor  of  the  Catholic  Church  militant,  its  supreme 
head,  and  Vicar  of  Christ,  who  has  a  plenitude  of  power,  as 
they  call  it,  and  supreme  dominion.  And  as  we  do  not 
acknowledge  any  other  head  of  the  Church  but  Christ,  so  we 
do  not  acknowledge  any  Church  to  be  a  true  Church  in  which 
are  not  found  the  marks  or  notes  of  a  true  Church,  above  all, 
the  pure  preaching  of  the  word  of  God.  Moreover,  they  who 
are  truly  in  the  Church,  united  in  the  one  Head  with  all  the 
members  of  Christ,  declare  themselves  to  be  Christ's  disciples 
by  persevering  in  the  bond  of  peace  and  holy  unity :  they  par- 
take of  the  sacraments  instituted  by  Christ  and  handed  down 
by  the  apostles." 

The  Coiifcssio  Saxonica,  drawn  up  by  Melanchthon,  (15  51,) 
in  article  twelfth,  has  the  following  statement :  "  It  is  the 
divine  purpose  that  there  should  always  be  a  congregation  in 
the  world  possessing  the  word  of  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of 
God,  in  which  there  should  be  a  ministry,  insti- 
tuted and  perpetuated  by  Christ  Himself,  for  the        Confessio 

jS.XOTUC'T. 

preservation  and  propagation  of  his  doctrine. 
But  the  far  greater  part  of  mankind  reject  the 
word  of  God,  and  in  the  very  assembly  itself  which  is  named 
the  Church,  many  contentions  and  divisions  have  always  ob- 
tained, and  the  true  Church  has  been  assailed  by  both  exter- 
nal and  internal  foes.  When  men  behold  these  dissensions, 
and  see  that  those  who  embrace  other  doctrines  in  conflict 
with  the  gospel,  surpass  the  Church  in  numbers,  power,  and 
glory,  they  doubt  whether  there  is  any  Church  of  God,  what, 


150  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

of  what  kind,  and  where  it  is.  To  the  profane  the  solution 
of  this  question  is  difficult;  but  the  true  Church  knows,  on  the 
divine  testimony,  the  source  of  all  this  opposition,  and  that 
amidst  it  all,  the  Church  of  God  is  safe,  distinguishing  it  from 
all  other  bodies,  and  knowing  what  and  where  it  is.  In  order, 
therefore,  that  the  saints  might  be  the  more  confirmed  against 
these  doubts,  this  article  is  embodied  in  the  Creed  :  I  believe 
there  is  a  Holy  Catholic  Church.  By  this  profession,  we 
affirm  that  the  whole  human  race  has  not  been  cast  away  by 
God,  but  that  there  is^  and  will  contmue  to  be  a  true  Church,  that 
the  promises  of  God  have  been  fulfilled,  that  the  Son  of  God 
yet  reigns,  receives  and  saves  those  who  call  upon  Him,  and, 
supported  by  this  consolation,  we  give  thanks  to  God."  .... 
"  We  do  not  speak  of  the  Church  as  of  a  Platonic  idea,  but  we 
point  out  the  Church  which  can  be  seen  and  heard.  We, 
therefore,  say  that  the  Church  visible  on  earth  is  the  congre- 
gation of  those  embracing  the  gospel,  and  rightly  using  the 
sacraments,  in  which,  through  the  ministry  of  the  gospel,  God 
regenerates  many  unto  life  eternal,  in  which  congregation 
there  are,  nevertheless,  many  who  are  not  saints." 

The  twentieth  of  the  Articles  of  Religion  of  the  Church  of 

England,  (1552;  the  nineteenth  of  1562,   1571):  "The  visible 

Church    of  Christ   is   a   cons^recration    of  faithful 

on  essio      j^gj^   \^  which  the  pure  word  of  God  is  preached, 

Anglicana,  ,         ,    ,  .    •  i  i- 

jcr2.         and  the  sacraments  be  duly  ministered,  according 
to  Christ's  ordinance,  in  all  those  things  that   of 
necessity  are  requisite  to  the  same." 

The  Conf essio  Belgica :  "  We  believe  and  confess  one  Catho- 
lic or  Universal   Church,  which  is  a  true  congregation  of  all 
faithful   Christians,  who  expect  all  their   salvation   from   one 
Jesus  Christ,  having  been  washed  in  his  blood,  and  sanctified 
and    sealed  by  his    Spirit.  .  .  .  Inasmuch    as    this 
on  essio      \^Q\y  congregation  consists  of  those  who  shall  be 
jc6,^ '       saved,  and  since  out  of  it  there  is  no  salvation,  no 
one  ought  to  withdraw  or  separate  himself  from 
it.     On  the  contrary,  all  ought  to  adhere  to  it,  and  carefully 
preserve  the  unity  of  the   Church,  submitting  as  well  to  its 


STATEMENTS    OF    CALVIN.  I5I 

doctrine  as  to  its  discipline,  and,  as  common  members  of  the 
body  of  Christ,  promoting  the  edification  of  the  brethren,  as 
God  has  distributed  in  each  one  his  several  gifts.  The  true 
Church  is  distinguished  from  the  false  by  these  notes:  the 
pure  preaching  of  the  gospel,  and  the  lawful  administration, 
according  to  Christ's  ordinance,  of  the  sacraments,  and  also 
the  right  use  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  :  to  embrace  all  in  one 
word,  the  performance  of  all  things  according  to  the  rule  of 
God's  word,  and  the  rejection  of  whatever  is  opposed  to  it  — 
the  acknowledgment  of  the  one  only  Head,  Christ.  From 
the  true  Church,  ascertained  by  these  notes,  it  is  not  lawful  to 
be  separated." 

The  Heidelberg  Catechism  :  "  I  believe  that  the  Son  of 
God,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  world,  gathers  to 
himself  out  of  the  whole  human  race,  guards,  and  preserves, 
through  his  Spirit  and  word,  a  congregation  chosen  to  eternal 
life,  agreeing  in  the  true  faith,  and  that  I  am,  and  will  ever 
continue  to  be,  a  living  member  of  that  congregation." 

Next  to  Melanchthon's   exposition  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Church,  as  contained  in  the  apology    q^\^,-^^  j.^^ 
of  the  Aiigiistana,  that  of  Calvin,  as  fully  set  forth 
in  the  fourth  book   of  his   Institutes^  [No.  56,]  is   worthy  of 
special  attention. 

"  It  is  God's  will  that  all  his  children  be  gathered  into  the 
bosom  of  the  Church,  not  only  to  be  nourished  by  her  assist- 
ance and  ministry  during  their  infancy  and  childhood,  but 
also  to  be  governed  by  her  maternal  care,  till  they  attain  a 
mature  age,  and  at  length  reach  the  end  of  their  faith.  It  is 
not  lawful  to  put  asunder  what  God  hath  joined  together;  the 
Church  is  the  m.other  of  all  those  who  have  God  for  their 
Father,  according  to  the  apostle,  who  declares  the  new  and 
heavenly  Jerusalem  to  be  '  the  mother  of  us  all.'  " 

"That  article  of  the  Creed  in  which  we  profess  to  believe 
The  Church,  refers  not  only  to  the  visible  Church  of  which 
we  are  now  speaking,  but  likewise  to  all  the  elect  of  God,  in- 
cluding the  dead  as  well  as  the  living.  The  word  believe  is 
used,  because  it  is  often  impossible  to  discover  any  difference 


152  THE     DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

between  the  children  of  God  and  the  ungodly.  .  .  .  The  design 
of  this  clause  is  to  teach  us,  that  though  the  devil 

Belief  in  the  •        i.      j      ^  ..1.  c  r^v,    •  .. 

Church  rnoves  every  engine  to  destroy  the  grace  of  Christ, 
and  all  the  enemies  of  God  exert  the  most  furious 
violence  in  the  same  attempt,  yet  his  grace  cannot  possibly 
be  extinguished,  nor  can  his  blood  have  been  shed  in  vain. 
Here  we  must  regard  both  the  secret  election  of  God,  and  his 
internal  vocation ;  because  he  alone  knoweth  them  that  are 
his.  .  .  .  This  article  of  the  Creed,  however,  relates  in  some 
measure  to  the  external  Church,  that  every  one  of  us  may  main- 
tain a  brotherly  agreement  with  all  the  children  of  God,  may 
pay  due  deference  to  the  authority  of  the  Church,  in  a  word, 
may  conduct  himself  as  one  of  the  flock.  Therefore  we  add 
THE  COMMUNION  OF  SAINTS ;  a  clause  which  well  expresses  the 
character  of  the  Church  as  consisting  of  the  saints  united  in 
the  fellowship  of  Christ,  and  mutually  communicating  to  each 
other  whatever  benefits  God  confers  upon  them.  We  believe 
the  Church,  in  order  to  have  a  certain  assurance  that  we  are 
members  of  it.  For  thus  our  salvation  rests  on  firm  and 
solid  foundations,  so  that  it  cannot  fall  into  ruin,  though  the 
whole  fabric  of  the  world  should  be  dissolved.  .  .  .  We  may 
learn  even  from  the  title  of  mother,  applied  to  the  Church 
v^isible,  how  necessary  it  is  for  us  to  know  her  ;  since  there  is 
no  other  way  of  entrance  into  life,  unless  we  are  conceived  by 
her,  born  of  her,  nourished  at  her  breasts,  and  continually 
preserved  under  her  care  and  government,  till  we  are  divested 
of  this  mortal  flesh  and  become  like  the  angels.  For  our  in- 
firmity will  not  admit  of  our  dismission  from  her  school ;  we 
must  continue  under  her  instruction  and  discipline  to  the  end 
of  our  lives.  Out  of  her  bosom  there  can  be  no  hope  of  re- 
mission of  sins,  or  any  salvation. 

"  The  word  CJmrch  is  used  in  holy  Scripture  in  two  senses : 
the  Church  which  is  really  such  in  the  sight  of  God,  embracing 
the  true  members  of  Christ,  and  the  Church  as  composed  of 
all  throughout  the  world  who  profess  to  worship  one  God 
and  Jesus  Christ,  who  are  initiated  into  his  faith  by  baptism, 
who  testify  their  unity  in  true  doctrine  and  charity  by  a  partici- 


THE    MINISTRY.  I53 

pation  of  the  sacred  supper,  who  consent  to  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  and  preserve  the  ministry  which  Christ  has  instituted 
for  the  purpose  of  preaching  it.  In  this  Church  are  included 
many  hypocrites,  who  have  nothing  of  Christ  but  the  name 
and  appearance.  As  it  is  necessary  therefore  to 
bcHeve  that  Church  which  is  invisible  to  us,  and  of  the  word 
known  to  God  alone ;  so  this  Church  which  is  visi- 
ble to  men  we  are  commanded  to  honor,  and  to  maintain  com- 
munion with  it.  The  Lord  doth  distinguish  it  by  certain 
marks  —  the  word  of  God  purely  preached  and  heard,  and  the 
sacraments  administered  according  to  the  institution  of  Christ. 
"The  ministry  of  the  word  and  sacraments  we  ought  to 
account  a  perpetual  mark  and  characteristic  of  the  Church. 
That  is  to  say,  wherever  tliat  exists  entire  and  uncorrupted, 
no  errors  and  irregularities  of  conduct  form  a  sufficient  reason 
for  refusing  the  name  of  a  Church.     That  minis- 

,  .   ,  .         .  ,  ,      .  .  r       1  •       The  ministry. 

try  which  mamtams  the  grand  doctrme  of  reli- 
gion, the  points  in  which  all  the  faithful  ought  to  agree  as 
articles  of  faith,  and  which,  in  regard  to  the  sacraments, 
upholds  the  institution  of  their  author,  is  to  be  accounted  a 
legitimate  ministry.  But  the  ministry  which  errs  in  funda- 
mentals, and  fails  in  the  use  of  sacraments,  is  no  mark  of  the 
Church.  The  Church  must  of  necessity  fall,  if  the  foundation 
of  it,  which  is  the  doctrine  of  the  apostle  and  prophets,  be 
subverted.  And  as  this  is  the  state  of  thing  under  the  Papacy, 
it  is  easy  to  judge  how  much  of  the  Church  remains  there. 
Instead  of  the  ministry  of  the  word,  there  reigns  a  corrupt 
government,  composed  of  falsehoods  by  which  the  pure  light 
is  suppressed  or  extinguished.  An  execrable  sacrilege  has 
been  substituted  for  the  supper  of  the  Lord.  The  worship  of 
God  is  deformed  by  a  multifarious  and  intolerable  mass  of 
superstitions.  The  doctrine  without  which  Christianity  can- 
not exist  has  been  entirely  forgotten  or  exploded.  The 
public  assemblies  have  become  schools  of  idolatry  and  im- 
piety. In  withdrawing  from  the  participation  of  so  many  enor- 
mities, there  is  no  danger  of  our  separating  ourselves  from 
the  Church  of  Christ.  .  .  . 


154         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

"  We  refuse  not  to  acknowledge,  however,  among  the  Papists 

of  the  present  day,  those  vestiges  of  the  Church  which  it  has 

pleased  the   Lord   should  remain  among   them   after  its  re- 

mov^al.     He   has   preserved,  as   a  testimony  of  his   covenant, 

_,    ^^     ,     among  them,  baptism,  which,  being  consecrated 

The  Church     11.,.  ... 

of  Rome,  by  his  Iips,  retams  its  virtue  in  opposition  to  all 
the  impiety  of  men.  Other  vestiges  of  the  Church 
also  remain  through  his  providence,  to  keep  it  from  utter 
destruction.  While  we  refuse  therefore  to  allow  the  Papists 
the  title  of  the  Church,  without  any  qualification  or  restriction, 
we  do  not  deny  that  there  are  churches  among  them.  We 
only  contend  for  a  true  and  legitimate  constitution  of  the 
Church,  which  requires  not  only  a  communion  in  the  sacra- 
ments, which  are  the  signs  of  a  Christian  profession,  but  above 
all,  an  agreement  in  doctrine.  W^e  affirm  that  churches  exist 
even  under  the  tyranny  of  the  Pope  —  the  head  of  the  ac- 
cursed kingdom  of  Antichrist  in  the  Western  Church.  They 
are  churches,  inasmuch  as  God  has  wonderfully  preserved 
among  them  a  remnant  of  his  people,  .  .  .  and  as  there  still 
remain  some  marks  of  his  Church." 

"The  ministry  of  men,  which  God  employs  in  his  govern- 
ment of  the  Church,  is  the  principal  bond  which  holds  the 
faithful  together  in  one  body.  By  means  of  his  ministers  .  .  . 
Christ  dispenses  and  distributes  his  gifts  to  the  Church  .  .  .  ex- 
erting the  power  of  his  Spirit  in  this  his  institution,  that  it  may 
not  be  ineffectual.  .  .  .  Light  and  heat  are  not  so  essential  to 
the  sun,  as  the  apostolical  and  pastoral  office  is  to  the  preser- 
vation of  the  Church  in  the  world. 

"  Those  who  preside  over  the  government  of  the  Church, 

according  to  the  institution  of  Christ,  are  made  by  Paul,  first, 

apostles;   secondly,   prophets;   thirdly,  evangelists;   fourthly, 

pastors ;  lastly,  teachers.     Of  these  only  the  last  two  sustain 

an    ordinary  office    in   the   Church ;    pastors  and 

Minist  teachers  being  always  indispensable  to  the  Church, 

the  latter  having  no  official  concern  with  the  dis- 
cipline, or  the  administration  of  the  sacraments,  etc.,  but  only 
with   the  interpretation    of  Scripture;    whereas    the    pastoral 


ULRICH     ZWINGLI.  155 

office  includes  all  these  things.  Besides  the  ministry  of  the 
word,  there  are  two  other  functions  :  *  government '  and  '  the 
care  of  the  poor.'  Governors  in  the  apostolic  churches  were 
persons  of  advanced  years,  selected  from  the  people  to  unite 
with  the  bishops,  elders,  or  pastors  —  for  these  three  are  in 
the  usage  of  Scripture  interchangeable  terms  —  in  giving  ad- 
monitions and  exercising  discipline.  No  other  interpretation 
can  be  given  to  that  injunction  :  '  He  that  ruleth,  let  him  do  it 
with  diligence.'  The  care  of  the  poor  was  committed  to  the 
*  deacons,'  who  were  of  two  distinct  orders,  the  one  whose 
duty  it  was  to  distribute  alms,  the  other  composed  of  those 
who  devoted  themselves  to  the  care  of  the  poor  and  sick, 
such  as  the  widows  mentioned  by  Paul  to  Timothy. 

"  As  to  the  form  of  ordination,  though  there  is  no  express 
precept  for  the  imposition  of  hands,  yet  since  we  find  it  to 
have  been  constantly  used  by  the  apostles,  such  a  punctual 
observance  of  it  by  them  oucj-ht  to  have  the  force 

1  -T-1  •  r        Form  of 

of  a  precept  with  us.  This  was  not  the  act  ot  ordination, 
the  whole  multitude,  but  was  confined  to  the 
pastors  ;  whether  performed,  in  all  cases,  by  more  than  one, 
or  whether  ever  by  a  single  pastor,  is  not  certain.  .  .  .  Paul 
speaks  of  himself  as  having  laid  hands  upon  Timothy,  with- 
out any  mention  of  others  having  united  with  him.  His  ex- 
pression of  'the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  presbytery,' 
does  not,  I  apprehend,  refer  to  a  coinpany  of  ciders,  but  denotes 
the  ordination  itself." 

ZwiNGLi's  exposition  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  gives 
decided  prominence  to  the  distinction  between  the  Church 
considered  as  the  spotless  bride  of  Christ,  and  the  Church  as 
taken  cognizance  of  by  the  ungodly  world.  "  Christ  is  the 
Rock  on  which  the  Church,  that  is,  the  commu- 
nitv  of  true  believers,  is  built."     Hence  the  Church       J^'''"''^'^. 

.  Zwingli, 

is  a  society  composed  of  men  united  together  by        j^23. 
one  faith  and  one  spirit.     Every  real  believer  in 
Christ,  in  other  words,  every  one  who  places  his  whole  trust 
in  God   through   Christ,  is  in  the  Church,  in  the  truest  sense  ; 
that  is  to  say,  he  is  a  member  of  the  body  of  Christ.     Zwingli 


Ecclesia 
sensibilis. 


156         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

went  much  beyond  Luther  and  even  Calvin  in  emphasizing 
this  distinction  between  what  he  designates  the  ecclesia  sensi- 
bilis, including  all  who  are  found  in  the  outward  community 
of  Christians,  without  respect  to  moral  qualification,  and  the 
body  or  the  spouse  of  Christ,  which  is  necessarily 
"  without  spot  or  wrinkle,"  since  only  those  can 
form  a  part  of  it  who  are  vitally  one  with  Christ. 
And  this,  which  alone  is  the  true  Catholic  Church,  is  the 
Church  which  is  indefectible,  infallible,  and  imperishable, 
founded  as  it  is  on  the  Avord  of  God :  "  There  is  a  Church 
that  cannot  err,  and  is  directed  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  This 
Church  is  composed  of  all  true  believers  united  in  the  bonds  of 
faith  and  charity ;  but  it  is  visible  only  to  the  eye  of  its  Divine 
founder,  who  knoweth  his  own.  It  does  not  assemble  with 
pomp,  ...  it  has  no  temporal  reign  ;  it  seeks  neither  honors 
nor  domination ;  to  fulfil  the  will  of  God  is  the  only  care  by 
which  it  is  occupied."  {Conf.  ivith  Faber,  1523.) 


NOTE. 

N. 

See  Geist  aus  Luther's  Schriften,  oder  Concordantz  der  Ansichten  und 
Urtheile  des  grossen  Refonnators  iiber  die  wichtigsten  Gegenstande  des  Glaubens, 
der  Wissenschaft  und  des  Lebens.     Vier  Bande,  8vo,  Darmstadt,  1830. 

In  the  third  volume  of  this  invaluable  compilation,  pp.  47-222,  are  brought 
together,  from  all  parts  of  Luther's  multifarious  writings,  his  copious  utterances  on 
every  topic  connected  with  the  Church. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Anglican  Church  —  Abrogation  of  the  Papal  Supremacy  —  Papal 
Aggressions  —  Independence  of  Rome  Declared  —  Ground  of  the  Decla- 
ration—The XIII.  Articles  of  1538  — The  XLII.  Articles  — The  Or- 
dinal OF  1549-1552  —  No  Distinction  in  Order  between  Bishop  and 
Presbyter — Cranmer's,  etc.,  Declaration  of  the  Functions,  etc.,  of 
Bishops  and  Priests  —  Resolutions  on  the  Sacrament  of  Orders  — 
Cranmer's  Mature  Views,  as  expressed  in  Sermon  on  the  Power  of  the 
Keys. 

THE  Church  of  England  entered  upon  its  course  of  self- 
reformation  by  practically  asserting  a  principle  which 
had  been  recognized  by  the  Church  Catholic  from  the  begin- 
ning—  the  principle,  namely,  that  a  national  church,  through 
the  medium  of  its  representative  synod,  duly  convened,  has 
inherent  authority  from  its  Divine  Founder  to  correct  abuses, 
whether  of  doctrine  or  discipline,  within  its  own  jurisdiction. 
The  recovery  of  this  long-lost  right  was  signalized  by  the 
first  decisive  act  of  reformation  —  the  abrogation  of  the  papal 
supremacy.  "  Originally  independent  of  the  Latin  Church,  the 
Anglican  had  been  gradually  drawn  into  a  com- 
parative   subjugation.     The    Roman    element    in  Abrogation  of 

An^lo-Saxon  Christianity  had   overpowered    the        ^  ^^^^^ 
.  .  ,   ,  supremacy, 

influence  exerted   by  the  surviving  British  com-         j^.^ 

munion  and  the  missionaries  from  Ireland  ;  till  at 
length  a  considerable  degree  of  deference,  and  even  of  servility 
was  manifested  by  the  king,  the  clergy,  and  the  people,  towards 
the  dominant  court  of  Rome.  Anterior  to  the  Conquest,  the 
feeling  was  that  of  gratitude  and  affection,  such  as  we  may 
now  trace  in  the  language  of  the  American  Church  with  re- 
gard to  the  Church  of  England :  but  when  the  papal  preten- 
sions had  grown  into  the  form  which  they  assumed  under 
Gregory  VII.  and  his  successors — being  developed  from   a 

157 


158  THE     DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

primacy  of  order  into  a  supremacy  of  power  —  the  tone  of 
the  English  was  frequently  altered,  and  symptoms  appear  in 
their  intercourse  with  the  Popes,  of  the  warm  and  unflinching 
nationality  which  effected  the  Reformation.  From  the  time 
of  the  dispute  on  the  subject  of  investitures — when  'the 
king  and  his  nobles,  the  bishops  also,  and  others  of  inferior 
rank,  were  so  indignant  as  to  assert  that  rather  than  surren- 
der the  privileges  of  their  forefathers,  they  would  depart  from 
the  Roman  Church,'  —  till  the  final  struggle  in  the  reigns  of 
Henry  VIII.  and  Elizabeth,  the  encroachments  of  the  Pope 
had  been  calling  forth  a  spirited  opposition;  and  if  we  allow 
that  his  interference  was  in  some  cases  salutary,  and  as  such 
cordially  desired  by  a  large  body  of  the  nation,  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  study  the  civil  enactments  of  the  period,  without  per- 
ceiving the  growth  of  that  deep  exasperation  which  eventually 
repelled  the  papal  aggressions,  and  secured  the  freedom  of 
the  Church. 

"  These  aggressions  consisted  of  the  following  particulars  : 
(i)  A  judicial  power  in  matters  ecclesiastical,  or  cases  of  ap- 
peal.    (2)   A  power  of  granting  licenses  and  dispensations. 
(3)  A  liberty  to  send  legatees  into  England  and  to 
aggre^ions.    ^^^^  legatine  courts.     (4)  A   power  of  granting 
investiture    of   bishops,    of  confirming   episcopal 
elections,  and  of  distributing  ecclesiastical  patronage.     (5)  A 
privilege  of  receiving  first-fruits,  the  tenths  of  English  bene- 
fices, and  the  goods  of  the  clergy  who  died  intestate."  {Hard- 
ivick,  Hist.  Art.,  p.  26.) 

The  Church  of  England,  canonically  represented  in  the  pro- 
vincial  synods   of  Canterbury  and  York,  in  the  year   1534, 
declared  her  independence  of  the  papal  monarchy,  affirming 
that  tJie  Bishop  of  Rome  has  in  Holy  Scripture  no  greater  jurisdic- 
tion tuithin  the  kingdom  of  England  than  any  other 
"of  Rome       foreign  bishop.     The  ground  of  this  declaration  is 
amply  set  forth  in  a  document  published  two  years 
later —  The  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man  :  —  "I  believe  that 
these  particular  churches,  in  what  place  of  the  world  soever 
they  be  congregated,  be  the  very  parts,  portions,  or  members 


INDEPENDENCE    OF    ROME.  I59 

of  this  Catholic  and  Universal  Church.  And  that  between 
them  there  is  indeed  no  difference  in  superiority,  pre-eminence, 
or  authority,  neither  that  any  one  of  them  is  head  or  sover- 
eign over  the  other ;  but  that  they  be  all  equal  in  power  and 
dignity,  and  be  all  grounded  and  builded  upon  one  foundation. 
.  .  .  And,  therefore,  I  do  believe  that  the  Church  of  Rome  is 
not,  nor  cannot  worthily  be  called  the  Catholic  Church,  but 
only  a  particular  member  thereof,  and  cannot  challenge  or 
vindicate  of  right,  and  by  the  word  of  God,  to  be  head  of  this 
Universal  Church,  or  to  have  any  superiority  over  the  otlier 
churches  of  Christ  which  be  in  England,  France,  Spain,  or  in 
any  other  realm,  but  that  they  be  all  free  from  any  subjection 
unto  the  said  Church  of  Rome,  or  unto  the  minister  or  bishop 
of  the  same.  And  I  believe  also,  that  the  said  Church  of 
Rome,  with  all  the  other  particular  churches  in  the  world, 
compacted  and  united  together,  do  make  and  constitute  but 
one  Catholic  Church  or  body.  .  .  .  As  for  the  Bishop  of  Rome, 
it  was  many  hundred  years  after  Christ  before  he  could  acquire 
or  get  any  primacy  or  governance  above  any  other  bishops, 
out  of  his  province  in  Italy.  Since  which  time  he  hath  ever 
usurped  more  and  more,  .  .  .  and  that  under  the  pretence  of 
the  authority  committed  unto  them  by  the  gospel :  wherein 
the  said  bishops  of  Rome  do  not  only  abuse  and  pervert  the 
true  sense  and  meaning  of  Christ's  word,  but  they  do  also 
clean  contrary  to  the  use  and  custom  of  the  primitive  Church, 
and  also  do  manifestly  violate  as  well  the  holy  canons  made 
in  the  Church  immediately  after  the  time  of  the  apostles,  as 
also  the  decrees  and  constitutions  made  in  that  behalf  by  the 
holy  fathers  of  the  Catholic  Church,  assembled  in  the  first 
general  councils ;  and  finally  they  do  transgress  their  own 
profession,  made  in  their  creation.  For  all  the  bishops  of 
Rome  always,  when  they  be  consecrated  and  made  bishops 
of  that  see,  do  make  a  solemn  profession  and  vow,  that  they 
shall  inviolably  observe  and  keep  all  the  ordinances  made  in 
the  eight  first  general  councils,  among  the  which  it  is  spe- 
cially provided  and  enacted,  that  all  causes  shall  be  finished 
and  determined  within  the  province  where  the  same  be  begun, 


l60         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

and  that  by  the  bishops  of  the  same  province ;  and  that  no 
bishop  shall  exercise  any  jurisdiction  out  of  his  own  diocese  or 
province.  And  divers  such  other  canons  were  then  made 
and  confirmed  by  the  said  councils,  to  repress  and  take  away 
out  of  the  Church  all  such  primacy  and  jurisdiction  over 
kings  and  bishops,  as  the  bishops  of  Rome  pretend  now  to 
have  over  the  same.  And  we  find  that  divers  good  fathers, 
bishops  of  Rome,  did  greatly  reprove,  yea,  and  abhor,  as  a 
thing  clean  contrary  to  the  gospel,  and  the  decrees  of  the 
Church,  that  any  bishop  of  Rome,  or  elsewhere,  should  pre- 
sume, usurp,  or  take  upon  him  the  title  and  name  of  'the  uni- 
versal bishop,'  or  of  *  the  head  of  all  priests,'  or  of  *  the 
highest  priest,'  or  any  such  like  title.  For  confirmation 
whereof,  it  is  out  of  all  doubt  that  there  is  no  mention  made, 
neither  in  Scripture,  neither  in  the  writings  of  any  authentical 
doctor  or  author  of  the  Church,  being  within  the  time  of  the 
apostles,  that  Christ  did  ever  make  or  institute  any  distinction 
or  difference  to  be  in  the  pre-eminence  of  power,  order,  or 
jurisdiction  between  the  apostles  themselves,  or  between  the 
bishops  themselves ;  but  that  they  were  all  equal  in  power, 
order,  authority,  and  jurisdiction." 

These  principles  were  reaffirmed  in  the  Necessary  Doctrine 
and  Erudition  for  any  Christian  Man,  (1543,)  and  supported  by 
the  same  arguments ;  —  the  whole  going  to  prove  that  the 
Anglican  Reformers  "  vv^ere  actuated  by  no  spirit  of  revolution, 
but  proceeded  with  their  critical  task  upon  the  principles 
which  they  had  drawn  from  the  study  of  Christian  antiquity." 
Nothins",  indeed,  can  be  more  evident  than  that  the  aim  of 
Cranmer  and  his  associates  was  not  to  establish  a  new  sys- 
tem, "but  to  re-establish  one  which  they  saw  falling  to  decay; 
not  to  depart  from  the  communion  of  the  rest  of  Catholic 
Christendom,  but  to  suppress  the  unlawful  jurisdiction  of  the 
Roman  Pontiff — and  by  following  in  the  steps  of  the  primi- 
tive Church,  to  regain  many  pure  and  practical  elements  of  the 
faith  which,  in  the  lapse  of  the  middle  ages,  had  been  gradu- 
ally obscured,  distorted,  or  denied  by  the  dominant  class  of 
schoolmen." 


THE    XIII.    ARTICLES    OF     I538.  161 

Four  years  after  the  first  triumph  of  the  English  Reforma- 
tion, achieved  in  the  synodical  abrogation  of  the  papal  supre- 
macy, Cranmer,  Tonstal,  and  other  leading  English  divines, 
constituting  a  committee  nominated  by  the  king,  drew  up,  in 
concert  with  a  number  of  Lutheran  theologians,  a  formulary 
of  doctrine  known  as  TJic  XIII.  Articles  of  1538. 
This  document,  which  was   first  brought  to  licrht      .  ^^  \ 

o         ,        -r^       T      ,  ,  ,.  r      ^  ,         Articles  of 

m  1833,  by  Dr.  Jenkyns,  the  editor  of"  Cranmer  s  ,.,§ 
Remains,"  seems  to  have  constituted  the  ground- 
work of  our  "Articles  of  Religion."  As  such  —  serving  as  a 
link  between  the  Lutheran  and  the  Anglican  formularies  —  it 
has  for  us  a  special  interest.  The  fifth  of  the  XIII.  Articles, 
entitled  Of  the  Church,  presents  a  remarkable  deviation  from 
the  corresponding  article  in  the  Augiistana,  distinguishing,  as 
it  does,  between  the  Church  considered  as  the  mystical  body 
of  Christ,  and,  as  such,  composed  exclusively  of  true  believers, 
and  the  Church  considered  as  the  congregation  of  all  the 
baptized  who  have  notbeen  excommunicated:  — "The  Church, 
besides  other  meanings  in  Scripture,  has  two  principal  ones : 
first,  that  in  which  the  Church  is  understood  of  the  con- 
gregation of  all  the  saints  and  the  truly  faithful,  who  truly 
believe  in  Christ  the  Head,  and  are  sanctified  by  his  spirit. 
But  this  is  the  living  and  truly  holy  mystical  body  of  Christ, 
known  to  God  only,  who  alone  knowcth  the  hearts  of  men. 
Tlie  other  acceptation  is  that  in  which  the  Church  is  taken 
for  the  congregation  of  all  who  have  been  baptized  in  Christ, 
and  have  not  openly  denied  Him,  nor  been  justly  excommu- 
nicated. This  meaning  of  the  Church  accords  with  its  state 
in  this  life  at  least,  in  which  the  good  are  mixed  with  the 
bad  ;  and  it  must  be  known  in  order  that  it  may  be  heard, 
according  to  the  Scripture  :  '  If  he  neglect  to  hear  the  Church,' 
etc.  It  is  known  by  the  profession  of  the  gospel  and  the 
communion  of  the  sacraments.  This  is  the  Church  Catholic 
and  Apostolic,  which  is  not  circumscribed  by  the  bounda- 
ries of  the  Roman  Episcopate,  or  of  any  other  Church,  but 
embraces  all  the  churches  of  the  whole  of  Christendom, 
which  together  compose   the  one   Catholic  Church.     In  this 


1 62         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Catholic  Church,  no  particular  Church,  whether  Roman  or 
any  other,  can  claim  for  itself,  by  the  institution  of  Christ, 
any  eminence  or  authority  over  other  churches.  This  Church 
is  indeed  one,  not  that  it  has  any  one  head  upon  earth,  or  any 
one  Vicar  under  Christ,  or  ever  had  any  such,  (as  the  Roman 
Pontiff  has  long  claimed  to  be  by  divine  right,  while  in  reality 
nothing  more  is  conceded  to  him  by  divine  right  than  to  any 
other  bishop,)  but  it  is  called  one  inasmuch  as  all  Christians, 
bound  together  in  the  bond  of  peace,  acknowledge  one  Head, 
Christ,  whose  body  they  profess  to  be,  confess  one  Lord,  one 
faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  and  Father  of  all." 

Passing  into  the  Edwardine  period  of  the  Reformation,  we 
find  the  Anglican  doctrine  of  the  Church,  as  now  definitively 
settled,  set  forth  in  three  distinct  formularies :  the  XLII. 
Articles  of  1552,  the  Catechism  of  1553,  and  the  Ordinal  of 

1549-52. 

The  twentieth  of  the  XLII.  Articles,  entitled,  Of  the  Chiwch, 

contains  a  definition  which  is  an   exact  reproduction  of  the 

Melanchthonian   statements   as   embodied  in  the 

^  '  Aiigustana,  the  Apology^  and  the  Confessio  Saxon- 
ica :  *'  The  visible  Church  of  Christ  is  a  congrega- 
tion of  faithful  men,  in  the  which  the  pure  word  of  God  is 
preached,  and  the  sacraments  be  duly  ministered,  according 
to  Christ's  ordinance,  in  all  those  things  that,  of  necessity,  are 
requisite  to  the  same." 

This  definition  receives  elucidation  from  a  parallel  descrip- 
tion of  the  Church  in  a  well-known  passage  in  the  second  part 
of  the  Homily  for  Whitsunday :  "  The  true  Church  is  an  uni- 
versal congregation  or  fellowship  of  God's  faithful  and  elect 
people,  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets, 
Jesus  Christ  Himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone."  And  that 
the  Church,  thus  defined,  is  "  the  visible  Church  of  Christ,"  so 
designated  in  the  twentieth  of  the  XLII.  Articles,  is  plain  from 
what  immediately  follows:  "And  it"  —  "the  true  Church, 
which  is  a  universal  congregation,"  etc.  —  "  hath  always  three 
notes  or  marks"  {external  characteristics)  "whereby  it  is 
known :  pure  and  sound  doctrine,  the  sacraments  ministered 


THE    XLII.    ARTICLES.  I63 

according  to  Christ's  holy  institution,  and  the  right  use  of 
ecclesiastical  discipline." 

Other  articles  concerning  the  Church  are  the  twenty-first, 
twenty -second,  thirty -second,  thirty -third,  and  thirty -sixth. 
The  twenty -first  article,  "Of  the  Authority  of  the  Church," 
while  claiming  for  the  Church  the  prerogative  of  being  "  a 
witness  and  keeper  of  Holy  Writ,"  pronounces  her  incompe- 
tent to  decree  anything  at  variance  with  that  record. 

The  twenty -second  article,  "Of  the  authority  of  General 
Councils,"  "  vindicates  the  right  of  the  civil  power,  in  con- 
voking such  assemblies,  from  the  later  encroachments  of  the 
Pope;  and  maintains  that  some  of  the  councils  reputed  'gene- 
ral '  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  had  actually  fallen  into 
error."  On  the  meaning  of  this  article  the  Reformatio  Legiim, 
(c.  14,)  as  Hardwick  remarks,  "  is  an  excellent  commentary. 
It  declares  that  we  reverently  accept  the  four  great  oecumen- 
ical councils,  and  defer  to  the  decisions  of  many  of  the  later 
synods,  so  far  as  they  upheld  the  fundamentals  of  religion." 

The  thirty-second  and  thirty-third  "relate  to  the  internal 
discipline  and  usages  of  the  Church,  which  had  been  made  the 
subject  of  vehement  disputation.  The  former  denounces  the 
excommunicate  as  unfit  for  the  society  of  Christians ;  the  latter 
declares  that  *  traditions,'  or  ecclesiastical  rites  and  customs, 
may  not  be  violated  by  any  at  the  mere  impulse  of  his  private 
judgment." 

The  thirty-sixth  is  directed  partly  against  the  Romanizing  fac- 
tion who  continued  to  assert  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope,  affirm- 
ing that  "  the  king  of  England  is  supreme  head  in  earth,  next 
under  Christ,  of  the  Church  of  England  and  Ireland ; "  and 
that  "  the  Bishop  of  Rome  hath  no  jurisdiction  in  this  realm 
of  England." 

In  reference  to  the  ministry,  the  twenty-fourth  article,  based 
on  the  fourteenth  of  the  Augsburg  Articles,  declares,  "  It  is 
not  lawful  for  any  man  to  take  upon  him  the  office  of  public 
preaching,  or  ministering  the  sacraments  in  the  congregation, 
before  he  be  lawfully  called  and  sent  to  execute  the  same. 
And  those  we  ought  to  judge  lawfully  called  and  sent,  which 


164         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

be  chosen  and  called  to  tliis  work  by  men  who  have  public 
authority  given  unto  them  in  the  congregation  to  call  and  send 
ministers  into  the  Lord's  vineyard." 

This  article,  primarily  directed  against  the  error  of  the  Ana- 
baptists, that  every  one  who  believed  (or  fancied)  himself 
inwardly  called  to  the  work  of  the  ministry  is  bound  to  assume 
the  office,  in  defiance  of  the  authority  of  the  Church,  without 
a  regular  outward  call,  receives  illustration  from  the  tenth  of 
the  XIII.  Articles  of  1538  :  "  Of  the  ministers  of  the  Church  we 
teach  that  no  man  ought  to  teach  publicly,  or  to  minister  the 
sacraments,  unless  he  be  rightly  called,  that  is  to  say,  called 
by  those  who  have  the  power  in  the  Church,  according  to 
God's  word,  and  the  laws  and  usages  of  each  particular  country, 
of  calling  and  admitting  to  the  ministry.  And  no  man,  called 
to  the  ministry  of  the  Church,  even  though  he  be  a  bishop, 
whether  the  Roman  bishop  or  any  other  whosoever,  may  claim 
the  power,  by  divine  right,  to  teach  publicly,  to  minister  the 
sa<;raments,  or  exercise  any  ecclesiastical  function  in  another's 
diocese  or  parish ;  that  is  to  say,  no  bishop  may  do  so  in  the 
diocese  of  another  bishop,  and  no  parish  priest  in  the  parish 
of  another  priest." 

The  Anglican  doctrine  of  the  constitution  of  the  ministry  is 

further  set  forth  in  the  authoritative  statements  following :  "  It 

is  evident  unto  all  men,  diligently  reading  Holy  Scripture  and 

ancient  authors,  that  from  the  apostles'  time  there  hath  been 

these    orders    of  ministers    in    Christ's    Church : 

bishops,  .priests,  and  deacons  ;  which  offices   were 

rr^r^o        evermore   had  in  such   reverent   estimation,  that 
1549-52-  ' 

no  man  by  his  own  private  authority  might  pre- 
sume to  execute  any  of  them,  except  he  were  first  called, 
tried,  examined,  and  known  to  have  such  qualities  as  were 
requisite  for  the  same;  and  also  by  public  prayer,  with  im- 
position of  hands,  approved  and  admitted  thereunto.  And 
therefore,  to  the  intent  these  orders  should  be  continued  and 
reverently  used  and  esteemed  in  this  Church  of  England,  it  is 
requisite  that  no  man  (not  being  at  this  present  bishop,  priest, 
nor  deacon)  shall  execute  any  of  them,  except  he  be  called, 


EPISCOPATE    AND    PRESBYTERATE    ONE    ORDER.     165 

tried,  examined,  and  admitted,  according  to  the  form  hereafter 
following."  (Preface  to  the  Ordinal,  1549  and  1552,  which  con- 
tinued without  alteration  down  to  1662  —  a  period  of  one  hun- 
dred and  thirteen  years.) 

In  the  office  itself  of  the  ordering  of  priests,  the  portion 
of  Scripture  appointed  for  the  epistle  is  Acts  xx.  17-35: 
"  Take  heed  therefore  unto  yourselves,  and  to  all  the  flock, 
over  which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  made  you  overseers,"  etc. 
Or,  I  Tim.  iii.  1-16 :  **  This  is  a  true  saying.  If  a  man  desire 
the  office  of  a  bishop,"  etc. 

For  the  gospel  is  appointed  Matt,  xxviii.  18-20;  or,  John 
X.  1-16;  or,  John  xx.  18-23. 

The  formula  in  imposing  hands  is  simply  —  "  Receive  the 
Holy  Ghost ;  whose  sins  thou  dost  forgive,  they  are  forgiven  : 
and  whose  sins  thou  dost  retain,  they  are  retained  :  and  be 
thou  a  faithful  dispenser  of  the  word  of  God,  and  of  his  holy 
sacraments.  In  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.     Amen." 

In  "  the  form  of  consecrating  of  an  archbishop  or  bishop," 
the  epistle  is  i  Tim.  iii.  1-7 — part  of  the  same  passage  ap- 
pointed for  the  epistle  in  the  office  of  ''the  Ordering  of  Priests ;  " 
and  the  gospel  is  John  xxi.  15-17;  "  or  else  " — the  rubric 
provides  —  "  out  of  the  tenth  chapter  of  John,  as  before  in  the 
Order  of  Priests'' 

The  formula  of  consecration  in  the  imposition  of  hands  is  — 
"Take  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  remember  that  thou  stir  up  the 
grace  of  God  which  is  in  thee  by  imposition  of  hands ;  for 
God  hath  not  given  us  the  spirit  of  fear,  but  of  power,  and 
love,  and  of  soberness." 

The  facts  here  calling  for  special  remark  are  these  :  —  I.  In 
the  preface  to  the  ordinal  as  originally  framed,  no  mention  is 
made  of  "  episcopal  ordination,"  as,  in  all  cases, 
prerequisite   to    the    performance    of    ministerial  ^^^  ^P^^^°P^^*^ 
functions   "in  this  Church."     Such  ordination  or  ^"    ^"^^^  V 

rate  one  order. 

consecration  is  required  of  him  only  who  is  not  al- 
ready a  bishop,  priest,  or  deacon  ;  according  to  what  particular 


l66         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

form  of  ordering,  whether  episcopal  or  presbyterial,  nothing 
is  prescribed. 

2.  In  the  two  offices  of  the  ordering  of  priests,  and  of  the 
consecrating  of  bishops,  the  same  texts  of  Holy  Scripture  are 
applied  to  the  office  of  priest  and  that  of  bishop,  without  dis- 
tinction; the  scriptural  or  apostolic  episcopate  being  thus,  as 
an  order,  identified  with  the  presbyterate. 

3.  The  words  used  in  imposing  hands  in  the  consecration 
of  a  bishop,  "  Remember  that  thou  stir  up,"  etc.,  taken  from 
2  Tim.  i.  6,  y  —  words  here  so  used  for  the  first  time,  not 
being  found  in  any  preceding  office  —  are  thus  applied  with 
marked  significance,  in  full  harmony  with  the  other  parts  of 
the  office.  Their  import  in  this  connection  may  be  made 
plain  by  viewing  them  in  their  original  connection  in  the 
sacred  text :  In  this  admonition  as  addressed  to  Timothy,  the 
apostle  speaks  of  the  gift  or  grace  imparted  by  the  imposition 
of  his  own  hands,  as  a  gift  formerly  bestowed.  This  gift  — 
the  gift  or  grace  of  orders,  a  spiritual  commission  given  by 
the  Church,  under  Christ,  to  feed  and  rule  the  flock  of  God  — 
now  in  Timothy's  full  possession,  he  is  exhorted  not  to  neglect. 

In  prescribing  the  use  of  these  words,  then,  to  accompany 
the  laying  on  of  hands  in  the  consecration  of  a  bishop,  the 
framers  of  this  office  plainly  declare  the  presbyter  about  to  be 
consecrated  to  be,  already,  in  virtue  of  his  ordination  to  the 
presbyterate,  endowed  with  the  gift  or  grace  of  orders,  in  the 
strict  and  proper  sense  of  the  expression;  no  distinction  being 
made  in  this,  or  in  any  part  of  the  formulary,  as  of  scriptural 
warrant,  or  of  divine  authority,  between  the  grace  of  presby- 
terial and  episcopal  orders.  In  the  act  of  imposing  hands,  the 
bishop  pronounces  the  words,  "  Remember  that  thou  stir  up 
the  grace  of  God,  which  is  (already)  in  thee,  by  imposition  of 
hands,"  (at  thy  ordination  to  the  presbyterate,)  words  plainly 
presupposing  identity  of  order  in  the  two  offices  of  the  priest- 
hood and  the  episcopate.  In  perpetuating  the  office  of  the 
episcopate,  our  fathers  of  the  Reformation  appeal  to  no  one 
text  of  Scripture  in  support  of  any  distinction  of  order  between 
it  and  the  presbyterate ;  on  the  contrary,  while  refraining  from 


cranmer's  declaration.  167 

any  use  of  language  that  might  imply  that  a  grace  of  orders 
accompanies  consecration  to  the  episcopate,  they  apply,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  same  passages  to  both  indiscriminately. 

4.  In  keeping  with  this  identification  of  presbyteral  and 
episcopal  orders  throughout  the  ordinal,  are  the  several  titles 
prefixed  to  the  three  offices  composing  it:  The  fonn  and  man- 
ncr  0/ ORDERING  of  deacons ;  the  form  of  ordering  priests;  the 
form  ^consecrating  of  an  archbishop  or  bishop. 

A  clear  light  is  thrown  upon  this  formulary  by  a  document 
put  forth  in  1536  by  Cranmer  and  other  leaders  of  the  Reform- 
ation,  entitled  "A  Declaration   of  the   functions 
and    divine   institution   of  bishops    and    priests."      Cranmer  s 

T         1  .  />      1      1        r  11        •  Declaration 

In  this  paper  we  nnd  the  lollowmg  statements:  of  the  function 
"  Beside  the  power  of  the  sword,  there  should  be  of  bishops. 
also  continually  in  the  Church  militant  certain 
other  ministers  or  officers,  which  should  have  spiritual  power^ 
authority,  and  commission,  under  Christ,  to  preach  and  teach 
the  word  of  God  unto  his  people,  and  to  dispense  and  admin- 
ister the  sacraments  of  God  unto  them ;  and  by  the  same  to 
confer  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  ...  to  order  and  conse- 
crate others  in  the  same  room,  order,  and  office  whereunto 
they  be  called  and  admitted  themselves ;  and,  finally,  to  feed 
Christ's  people  like  good  pastors,  etc.  This  power  and  min- 
istration is  called,  in  some  places  of  Scripture,  a  gift  and  a 
grace ;  in  some  places,  the  keys,  or  the  power  of  the  keys, 
whereby  is  signified  a  certain  limited  office. .  .  .  This  office  was 
committed  and  given  by  Christ  and  his  apostles  unto  certain 
persons  only,  that  is  to  say,  unto  priests  or  bishops,  whom  they 
did  elect,  call,  and  admit  thereunto  by  their  prayer,  and  im- 
position of  their  hands.  .  . .  The  truth  is,  that  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment there  is  no  mention  made  of  any  degrees  or  distinctions  in 
orders,  but  only  of  deacons  and  ministers,  a?id  of  priests  or 
bishops ;  nor  is  there  any  word  spoken  of  any  other  ceremony 
used  in  the  conferring  of  this  sacrament  (of  orders)  but  only 
of  prayer  and  the  imposition  of  the  bishop's  hands." 

The  views  of  Cranmer  and  his  associates  on  this  point  fur- 
ther appear  from  a  paper  drawn  up  in  1540,  under  the  e}'e  of 


l68         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

the  primate  :  "  The  resolutions  of  several  bishops  and  divines 
of  some  questions  concerning  the  sacraments,"  etc. 
Anglican  j^  ^j^^  ^^^^^^  question,  "Whether  bishops  or 
Episcopacy,  pri^sts  were  first?"  Cranmer  makes  answer: 
"  The  bishops  and  priests  were  at  one  time,  and 
were  no  two  things,  but  both  one  office,  in  the  beginning  of 
Christ's  religion."  Dr.  Cox,  afterward  Bishop  of  Ely,  an- 
swers:  "Although  by  Scripture  (as  St.  Hierome  saith)  priests 
and  bishops  be  one,  and,  therefore,  the  one  not  before  the 
other,  yet  bishops,  as  they  be  now,  were  after  priests,  and 
therefore  made  of  priests." 

Dr.  Redmayne,  master  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  thinks 
"  they  be  of  like  beginning,  and  at  the  beginning  were  3ot/i  one, 
as  St.  Hierome  and  other  old  authors  show  by  the  Scripture, 
wherefore  one  made  anotJier  indifferently!' 

Dr.  Edgeworth  "  thinks  it  no  inconvenience  that  the  priests 
in  the  primitive  Church  made  bishops.  Even  like  as  soldiers 
should  choose  one  among  themselves  to  be  their  captain,  so 
did  priests  choose  one  of  themselves  to  be  their  bishop,  for 
consideration  of  his  learning,  gravity,  and  good  living." 

And  Bonner,  Bishop  of  London,  says  :  "  I  think  the  bishops 
were  first,  and  yet  I  think  it  is  not  of  importance  whether  the 
priest  then  made  the  bishop,  or  else  the  bishop  the  priest,  con- 
sidering (after  the  sentence  of  St.  Jerome)  that  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Church  there  was  none  (or  if  it  were,  very  small) 
difference  between  a  bishop  and  a  priest,  especially  touching 
the  signification." 

The  eleventh  question  :  "  Whether  a  bishop  hath  authority 
to  make  a  priest  by  the  Scripture  or  no  ?  And  whether  any 
other  but  only  a  bishop  may  make  a  priest?  "  Cranmer  an- 
swers in  these  terms  :  "  A  bishop  may  make  a  priest  by  the 
Scripture,  and  so  may  princes  and  governors  also,  and  that 
by  the  authority  of  God  committed  to  them,  and  the  people 
also  by  their  election  ;  for  as  we  read  that  bishops  have  done 
it,  so  Christian  emperors  and  princes  usually  have  done  it, 
and  the  people,  before  Christian  princes  were,  commonly  did 
elect  their  bishops  and  priests." 


ANGLICAN     DIVINES    ON     EPISCOPACY.  169 

This  judgment  is  supplemented  in  the  answer  given  by  the 
primate  to  the  twelfth  question :  "  Whether  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament be  required  any  consecration  of  a  bishop  and  priest, 
or  only  appointing  to  the  office  be  sufficient?  "  "  In  the  New 
Testament,"  Cranmer  answers,  "  he  that  is  appointed  to  be  a 
bishop,  or  a  priest,  needeth  no  consecration  by  the  Scripture, 
for  election  or  appointing  thereto  is  sufficient!'  {Burnet,  Records, 
Part  I.,  b.  iii.  xxi.    Collier,  ix.,  pp.  201-8.) 

A  year  or  two  before,  in  a  tract  entitled,  Of  the  Order  and 
Ministry  of  Priests  and  Bishops,  Cranmer  held  the  following 
language :  **  The  priesthood  and  the  order  and  ministry  of 
bishops,  Scripture  plainly  teaches  are  of  divine  institution,  not 
human  appointment.  .  .  .  And  the  power,  function,  or  admin- 
istration of  these  ministers  is  very  necessary  to  the  Church  as 
long  as  we  here  upon  earth  carry  on  a  warfare  against  the 
flesh,  the  world,  and  Satan  ;  nor  ought  it  for  any  reason  ever 
to  be  abolished.  The  three  leading  grounds  of  this  propo- 
sition are  the  following:  First,  because  it  is  the  divine  com- 
mand that  this  power  or  function  should  always  be  maintained 
and  exercised  in  the  Church,  as  most  clearly  appears  from 
various  places  of  Scripture.  Second,  because  God  has  ap- 
pointed no  other  way  or  means  of  reconciling  us  to  Himself 
in  Christ,  and  imparting  to  us  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  making  us  heirs  of  eternal  life,  than  his  word  and  sacra- 
ments. Third,  because  this  function  and  power  has  annexed 
to  it  most  -sure  promises  of  the  most  excellent  things.  For 
by  this  administration  of  the  Word  and  sacraments  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  conferred,  the  richest  gifts  of  the  same  Spirit  are  im- 
parted to  believers,  and  our  justification  and  eternal  life  are 
given  to  us.  Moreover,  this  power  or  function  of  ministering 
the  word  of  God  and  the  sacraments  and  of  performing  the 
other  offices  which  we  have  named,  Christ  himself  gave  to  his 
apostles,  and  in  them  and  through  them  delivered  the  same  — 
not  promiscuously  to  all,  but  only  to  some  men  —  namely, 
bishops  and  presbyters  who  are  admitted  to  that  office." 

After  insisting  upon  the  necessity  of  vigilance  and  circum- 
spection on  the  part  of  the  bishop  and  the  priest  in  the  dis- 


170        THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

charge  of  their  respective  offices,  and  more  especially  in  seeing 
that  the  flock  of  God  have  the  pure  doctrine  of  the  gospel 
preached  to  them,  the  writer  proceeds  to  guard  his  readers 
against  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  the  superiority  of  one 
bishop  over'  another,  such  as  the  jurisdiction  of  patriarchs, 
primates,  archbishops,  and  metropolitans,  is  of  divine  appoint- 
ment, in  Scripture,  stating  as  a  matter  of  fact  that  those  grades 
of  office  are  of  human  appointment.  Hence  that  any  power 
assumed  by  one  bishop  over  another  without  men's  legitimate 
consent  is  not  a  lawful  power,  but  a  usurpation  and  tyranny. 
The  claim  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  to  be  universal  bishop  and  head 
of  the  Catholic  Church  is  then  shown  to  be  utterly  without 
foundation,  either  in  Scripture  or  the  consent  of  the  Church 
Catholic ;  nay,  to  be  in  contradiction  to  the  decrees  of  general 
councils.  The  tract  concludes  with  the  declaration  that  "  by 
divine  institution  the  supreme  authority,  paramount  to  all 
others  among  men,  is  that  of  Christian  kings  and  princes,  to 
whom  God  has  committed  the  care  and  government  of  the 
whole  people,  (clergy  as  well  as  laity,)  without  any  exception 
whatever."  ( Works,  vol.  ii.  Appendix,  xv.) 

Cranmer's  maturest  utterance  on  this  subject,  as  found  in 
the  Sermon  of  the  Authority  of  the  Keys,  incorporated  in  the 
Catechism  of  1548,  is  to  the  following  effect:  **  The  ministra- 
tion of  God's  word,  which  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  himself  did 
first  institute,  was  derived  from  the  apostles  unto 
,'   ™o" '3^     others   after  them,  by  imposition   of  hands   and 

the  Power  of  j       y  i 

the  Keys,  giving  the  Holy  Ghost,  from  the  apostles'  time 
to  our  days.  And  this  was  the  consecration, 
orders,  and  unction  of  the  apostles,  whereby  they,  at  the  be- 
ginning, made  bishops  and  priests ;  and  this  shall  continue  in 
the  Church  unto  the  world's  end.  .  .  .  The  sum  of  the  com- 
mission which  Christ  gav^e  to  his  disciples  was  this,  that  they 
should  preach  repentance  and  forgiveness  of  sins  in  his  name. 
.  .  .  Wherefore  all  things  that  the  ministers  of  the  Church  do 
say  or  do  to  us  ought  to  be  directed  to  this  end,  that  they 
may  loose  us,  and  declare  unto  us  the  forgiveness  of  our  sins, 
when  we  truly  repent  and  believe  in  Christ.     But  when  we  do 


CRANMER    ON    THE    POWER    OF    THE    KEYS.  I/I 

not  repent  us  of  our  sins,  and  forsake  the  same,  or  do  not  be- 
lieve the  gospel,  then  they  ought  to  bind  or  reserve  sin,  and 
to  declare  unto  us  that  if  we  still  continue  in  sin,  we  shall  be 
damned  forever.  And  when  the  ministers  do  thus  execute 
their  commission,  then  they  obey  God,  and  whose  sins  soever 
they  forgive  on  earth  their  sins  be  forgiven  in  heaven  also ; 
and  contrariwise,  whomsoever  they  bind  in  earth,  their  sins 
be  bound  also  in  heaven.  .  .  .  True  faith  must  ever  be  stayed 
upon  the  certain  word  and  work  of  God.  Now  God  doth  not 
speak  to  us  with  a  voice  sounding  out  of  heaven,  but  he  hath 
given  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  and  the  authority 
to  forgive  sin  to  the  ministers  of  the  Church.  Wherefore  let 
him  that  is  a  sinner  go  to  one  of  them.  Let  him  acknowledge 
and  confess  his  sin,  and  pray  him  that,  according  to  God's 
commandment,  he  will  give  him  absolution,  and  comfort  him 
with  the  word  of  grace  and  forgiveness  of  his  sins.  And 
v/hen  the  minister  doth  so,  then  I  ought  steadfastly  to  believe 
that  my  sins  are  truly  forgiven  me  in  heaven.  And  such  a 
faith  is  able  to  stand  strong  in  all  assaults  of  our  mortal 
enemy,  the  devil ;  forasmuch  as  it  is  builded  upon  a  sure  rock, 
that  is  to  say,  upon  the  certain  word  and  work  of  God.  For 
he  that  is  absolved  knoweth  for  a  surety  that  his  sins  are  for- 
given him  by  the  minister.  And  he  knoweth  assuredly  also 
that  the  minister  hath  authority  from  God  himself  so  to  do. 
And,  thirdly,  he  knoweth  that  God  hath  made  his  promise  to 
his  ministers,  and  said  unto  them,  *  To  whom  ye  forgive  sins 
upon  earth,  to  him  also  they  shall  be  forgiven  in  heaven.'  " 
{Catcchisiniis^  in  Fathers  of  the  English  Church,  vol.  iii.) 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Catena  Martyrum  DE  EccLESiA :  Tyndale;  Latimer;  Ridley;  Bradford; 
Hooper;  Philpot  —  Catechism  of  1553. 


I 


T  may  repay  our  pains  to  compare,  at  this  point,  the   re- 
corded views,  on  the  subject  of  the  Church  and  ministry, 
of  the  leadincr  martyrs  of  the  Anghcan  Reforma- 

Catena  fa  /  fc. 

Martyrum  tion.  The  remarkable  coincidence  of  statement 
obtaining  among  them  entitles  their  united  testi- 
mony to  the  highest  consideration. 

Matthew  Tyndale:  "The  question  whether  the  Church  or 
congregation  be  before  the  gospel,  or  the  gospel  before  the 
Church,  is  as  hard  to  solve  as  whether  the  father  be  elder 
than  the  son,  or  the  son  elder  than  his  father.  For  the 
whole  Scripture  and  all  believing  hearts  testify 
'  g  '  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^  begotten  through  the  Word.  Where- 
fore if  the  Word  beget  the  congregation,  and  he 
that  begetteth  is  before  him  that  is  begotten,  then  is  the 
gospel  before  the  Church.  Though  our  popish  hypocrites 
succeed  Christ  and  his  apostles,  and  have  their  Scripture,  yet 
they  be  fallen  from  the  faith  and  living  of  them,  and  are 
heretics,  and  had  need  of  a  John  Baptist  to  convert  them. 
And  we  depart  from  them  unto  the  true  Scripture,  and  unto 
the  faith  and  living  thereof  And  as  they  which  depart  from 
the  faith  of  the  true  Church  are  heretics,  even  so  they  that 
depart  from  the  Church  of  heretics  and  false  feigned  faith  of 
hypocrites  are  the  true  Church ;  which  thou  shalt  always 
know  by  their  faith,  examined  by  the  Scripture,  and  by  their 
profession,  and  consent  to  live  according  unto  the  laws  of 
God."  {Auszc'cr  to  More,  pp.  24,  26,  45.) 

Latimer  :  "  I  confess  there  is  a  Catholic  Church,  to  the  de- 

172 


CATENA     MARTYRUM.  I73 

termination  of  which  I  will  stand ;  but  not  the  Church  which 
you  call   Catholic,  which   sooner  might  be  termed  diabolic. 
And  whereas  you  join  together  the  Romish   and 
Catholic  Church,  stay  there,  I  pray  you.     For  it         ^        ' 
is  one  thing  to  say  Romish  Church,  and  another 
thing    to    say    Catholic    Church."    [Woj-ks,   vol.    ii.,  p.   290.) 
"  Wherefore,  as  Lyra  saith,  the  Church  consists  of  those  per- 
sons in  whom  abideth  the  true  knowledge  and  confession  of 
faith  and  verity.     Hereunto  Chrysostom  and  Jerome  agree." 
{Ibid.,  p.  313.) 

Ridley  :  "  The  Holy  Catholic  or  Universal  Church,  which 
is  the  communion  of  saints,  the  house  of  God,  the  spouse  of 
Christ,  the  body  of  Christ,  the  pillar  and  stay  of  the  truth, 
this  Church  I  believe,  according  to  the  Creed.  .  .  .  But  the 
rule   of  this   Church   is  the  word   of  God.     The       _.,, 

Ricilev 

guide  of  this  Church  is  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  1555!' 
marks  whereby  this  Church  is  known  unto  me  in 
this  dark  world,  and  in  the  midst  of  this  crooked  and  froward 
generation,  are  these :  the  sincere  preaching  of  God's  word, 
the  due  administration  of  the  sacraments,  charity,  and  faithful 
observing  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  according  to  the  word 
of  God.  And  that  Church  or  congregation  which  is  garnished 
with  these  marks  is  in  very  deed  that  heavenly  Jerusalem 
which  consisteth  of  those  that  be  born  from  above.  This  is 
the  mother  of  us  all,  and  by  God's  grace  I  will  live  and  die 
the  child  of  this  Church.  Forth  of  this,  I  grant,  there  is  no 
salvation,  and,  I  suppose,  the  residue  of  the  places  objected 
are  rightly  to  be  understood  of  this  Church  only."  (Pp.  122-3.) 
Bradford  :  "  The  ministry  of  God's  word  and  ministers  is 
an  essential  point ;  but  to  translate  this  to  bishops  and  their 
succession  is  a  plain  subtlety.  The  Church  consisteth,  as 
Lyra  writeth  full  well,  not  in  men  by  reason  of  secular  or 
temporal    power;  but  in  men   endued   with   true      ^    ,^    , 

1  1,  t/-.  r  r  •  ^  ir  •  Bradford, 

knowledcje,  and  confession  of  faith,  and  of  veritv.         ,--- 

And  in  Hilarius'  time,  you  know,  he  writeth  that 

the  Church  was  'hidden  rather  in  caves  and  holes'  than  '  did 


174  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

glisten  and   shine   in  thrones  of  pre-eminence.' "  (Vol.  i.,  pp. 
505-6,  '29). 

**  The  Church  is  visible  ;  howbeit  none  otherwise  visible  than 
Christ  was  here  on  earth ;  that  is,  no  exterior  pomp  or  show 
setteth  her  forth  commonly :  and,  therefore,  to  see  her  we 
must  put  on  such  eyes  as  good  men  put  on  to  see  and  know 
Christ  when  he  v/alked  here  on  earth  :  for  as  Eve  was  of  the 
same  substance  Adam  was  of,  so  is  the  Church  of  the  same 
substance  Christ  is  of;  I  mean  *  flesh  of  his  flesh,  and  bone  of 
his  bones.'  Look,  therefore,  how  Christ  was  visibly  known  to 
be  Christ  when  He  was  on  earth,  (that  is  by  considering  Him 
after  the  word  of  God,)  so  is  the  Church  known."  (Vol.  i.,  pp. 

503-4,  55 1-) 

"  I  would  gladly  have  the  Papists  show  me  one  place  of 
succession,  mentioned  in  the  Scriptures.  I  am  sure  that  when 
Paul  purposely  pointeth  out  the  whole  administration  of  the 
Church,  he  neither  maketh  one  head,  nor  any  inheritable 
primacy  ;  and  yet  he  is  altogether  in  commendation  of  unity. 
After  he  hath  made  mention  of  'one  God  the  Father,'  of  'one 
Christ,'  of  'one  spirit,'  of  'one  body,'  etc.,  — then  he  describeth 
the  mean  and  manner  how  unity  is  to  be  kept;  namely,  be- 
cause unto  every  pastor  is  grace  given,  after  the  measure 
wherewith  Christ  hath  endowed  them.  Where,  I  pray  you, 
is  now  any  title  oi plcnitudinis  potcstatis,  '  of  fulness  of  power  ?'  " 
(Vol.  ii.,  p.  I43-) 

Hooper:  "This  commonwealth  of  the  true  Church  is  known 
by  these  two  marks:  the  pure  preaching  of  the  gospel,  and 
the  right  use  of  the  sacraments.     Thus  proveth  Paul  that  the 

Church  is  bound  unto  the  word  of  God:  'You  are 
ooper,      |3yjj(jg<j  upon  the  foundation   of  the  apostles  and 

prophets.'  {Eph.  ii.;  likewise  Isaiah  lix.)  Of  the 
right  use  of  sacraments  it  is  taught,  (i  Cor.  xi.,  etc.)  Such  as 
teach  the  people  to  know  the  Church  by  these  signs,  namely, 
the  traditions  of  men,  and  the  succession  of  bishops,  teach 
wrong.  Those  two  false  opinions  hath  given  unto  the  succes- 
sion of  bishops  power  to  interpret  the  Scripture,  and  power  to 
make  such  laws  in  the  Church  as  it  pleaseth  them.     There  is 


CATENA     MARTYRUM.  175 

no  man  hath  power  to  interpret  the  Scripture.  God,  for  the 
preservation  of  his  Church,  doth  give  unto  certain  persons  the 
gift  and  knowledge  to  open  the  Scripture ;  but  that  gift  is  no 
power  bound  to  any  order,  succession  of  bishops,  or  title  of 
dignity.  The  princes  of  the  earth  give  always  such  power  of 
civil  justice  by  succession  ;  as  one  is  chief  justice  for  the  time 
of  his  office,  to  do  everything  appertaining  to  the  same,  so 
hath  always  his  successor  the  like. 

"  The  gift  of  interpretation  of  the  Scripture  is  the  light  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  given  unto  the  humble  and  penitent  person 
who  seeketh  it  only  to  honor  God,  and  not  unto  those  persons 
that  acclaim  it  by  title  or  place,  because  he  is  a  bishop,  or  fol- 
lowed by  succession  Peter  or  Paul.  . . .  Remember,  therefore,  to 
examine  all  kind  of  doctrine  by  the  word  of  God,  and  con- 
sider whether  these  injuries,  blasphemies,  trouble,  unquietness, 
and  destruction  of  God's  people  by  the  law  of  the  bishops  be 
to  be  permitted,  though  they  cry  till  they  be  hoarse  again, 
The  Holy  Church!  The  Holy  Church!"  (Vol.  i.  81-86.) 

"As  concerning  the  ministers  of  the  Church,  I  believe  that 
the  Church  is  bound  to  no  sort  of  pebple,  or  any  ordinary 
succession  of  bishops,  cardinals,  or  such  like,  but  unto  the  only 
word  of  God  ;  and  none  of  them  should  be  believed  but  when 
they  speak  the  word  of  God.  ...  I  am  sorry,  therefore,  with  all 
my  heart,  to  see  the  Church  of  Christ  degenerated  into  a  civil 
policy  ;  for  even  as  the  kings  of  the  world  naturally,  by  descent 
from  their  parents,  must  follow  in  civil  regiment,  rule,  and  law, 
as  by  right  they  ought,  even  so  must  such  as  succeed  in  the 
place  of  bishops  and  priests  that  die,  possess  all  gifts  and 
learning  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  rule  the  Church  of  Christ,  as 
his  godly  predecessors  had ;  so  that  the  Holy  Ghost  must  be 
captive  and  bondman  to  bishops'  sees  and  palaces.  And  be- 
cause the  Holy  Ghost  was  in  St.  Peter  at  Rome,  and  in  many 
other  godly  men  that  have  occupied  bishoprics  and  dioceses, 
therefore  the  same  gifts,  they  say,  must  needs  follow  in  their 
successors,  although,  indeed,  they  be  no  more  like  of  zeal  nor 
diligence  than  Peter  and  Judas,  Balaam  and  Jeremy,  Annas 
and  Caiaphas  to  John  and  James."  (Vol.  ii.,  p.  90.) 


176        THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Philpot  :  "  The  Church  is  a  congregation  of  people  dis- 
persed through  the  world,  agreeing  together  in  the  word  of 
God,  using  the  sacraments  and  all  other  things  according  to 
the  same.  I  do  not  precisely  define  the  Church, 
\^^° '  but  declare  what  I  think  the  Church  is.  The 
Church  is  both  visible  and  invisible.  The  invis- 
ible Church  is  of  the  elect  of  God  only  ;  the  visible  consists 
both  of  good  and  bad,  using  all  things  in  faith,  according  to 
God's  word.  The  Church  was  Catholic  in  the  apostles'  time, 
yet  was  it  not  universally  received  of  the  world.  But  because 
their  doctrine  which  they  received  of  Christ  was  perfect,  and 
appointed  to  be  preached  and  received  of  the  whole  world, 
therefore  it  is  called  the  Catholic  faith,  and  all  persons  receiv- 
ing the  same  to  be  counted  the  Catholic  Church.  And  St. 
Augustine,  in  another  place,  writeth  that  the  Catholic  Church 
is  that  which  believeth  aright.  '  The  Church  is  called,  there- 
fore, Catholic,  because  it  is  thoroughly  perfect,  and  halteth  in 
nothing.' 

"  But  doth  Augustine  say,  I  would  not  believe  the  Gospel 
if  the  authority  of  th^  Church  did  not  move  me  thereto  ?  I 
grant  that  the  authority  of  the  Church  doth  move  the  unbe- 
lievers to  believe ;  but  yet  the  Church  giveth  not  the  Word  its 
authority  ;  for  the  Word  hath  its  authority  only  from  God,  and 
not  of  men ;  men  be  but  the  disposers  thereof.  For,  first,  the 
Word  hath  its  being  before  the  Church,  and  the  Word  is-the 
foundation  of  the  Church  ;  and  first  is  the  foundation  sure, 
before  the  building  thereon  can  be  steadfast.  ...  I  deny  that 
succession  of  bishops  is  an  infallible  point  to  know  the  Church 
by ;  for  there  may  be  a  succession  of  bishops  known  in  a  place, 
and  yet  there  be  no  Church,  as  at  Antioch,  and  Jerusalem, 
and  in  other  places  where  the  apostles  abode,  as  well  as  at 
Rome.  But  if  you  put  to  the  succession  of  bishops  succession 
of  doctrine  withal,  (as  St.  Augustine  doth,)  I  will  grant  it  to  be 
a  good  proof  for  the  Catholic  Church  ;  but  a  local  succession 
is  nothing  available."  (Pp.  136-9.) 

The  Catechism  of  1553,  the  last  work  of  the  Reformers  of 
the    Edwardine  period,  "may  fairly  be    understood,"  as  Dr. 


CATECHISM    OF     1553-  '^Tl 

Randolph  remarks,  **  to  contain,  as  far  as  it  goes,  their  ulti- 
mate decision,  and  to  represent  the  sense  of  the  Church  of 
England  as  then  established.     In  this,  according 
to  Archbishop  Wake,  the  complete  model  of  our       ^ ^ 
Church  Catechism  was  laid ;   and  it  was  also  in 
measure  a  public  work,  'the  examination  of  it  having  been 
committed  (as  the  Injunction  testifies)  to  certain  bishops  and 
other  learned  men,'  after  which  it  was  published  by  the  king's 
authority."* 

"Of  the  holy  Church  "  this  catechism  teaches,  that  it  is  "a 
commonwealth,  to  the  furnishing  of  which  belong  all  they,  as 
many  as  do  truly  fear,  honor,  and  call  upon  God,  wholly  ap- 
plying their  mind  to  holy  and  godly  living;  and  all  those 
that,  putting  all  their  hope  and  trust  in  Him,  do  assuredly 
look  for  the  bliss  of  everlasting  life.  But  as  many  as  are  in 
this  faith  steadfast,  were  forechosen,  predestinate,  and  ap- 
pointed out  to  everlasting  life,  before  the  world  was  made. 
Witness  hereof  they  have  within  in  their  hearts,  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  the  author,  earnest,  and  unfailable  pledge  of  their  faith. 
.  .  .  Canst  thou  yet  further  depaint  me  out  that  congregation, 
which  thou  callest  a  kingdom  or  commonweal  of  Christians  ; 
and  so  set  it  out  before  mine  eyes,  that  it  may  severally  and 
plainly  be  known  asunder  from  each  other  fellowship  of  men, 
.  .  .  some  certain  congregation  that  may  be  seen  ? 

**  That  congregation  is  nothing  else  but  a  certain  multitude 
of  men  :  which,  wheresoever  they  be,  profess  the  pure  and 
upright  learning  of  Christ,  and  that  in  such  sort,  as  it  is  faith- 
fully set  forth  in  the  holy  Testament  by  the  evangelists  and 
apostles  :  which  in  all  points  are  governed  and  ruled  by  the 
laws  and  statutes  of  their  King  and  high  Bishop,  Christ,  in  the 
bond  of  charity :  which  use  his  holy  mysteries,  that  are  com- 
monly called  sacraments,  with  such  pureness  and  simplicity 
(as  touching  their  nature  and  substance)  as  the  apostles  of 
Christ  used  and  left  behind  in  writing.  The  marks,  therefore, 
of  this  Church  are :  first,  pure  preaching  of  the  gospel ;  then, 
brotherly  love,  out  of  which,  as  members  of  all  one  body, 

*  Enchiridion,  p.  vi. 


178         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

springeth  good  will  of  each  to  other;  thirdly,  upright  and 
uncorrupted  use  of  the  Lord's  sacraments,  according  to  the 
ordinance  of  the  gospel ;  last  of  all,  brotherly  correction,  and 
excommunication,  or  banishing  those  out  of  the  Church  that 
will  not  amend  their  lives.  This  mark  the  holy  fathers  termed 
discipline.  This  is  that  same  Church  that  is  grounded  upon 
the  assured  rock,  Jesus  Christ,  and  upon  trust  in  Him.  This 
is  that  same  Church  which  Paul  calleth  the  pillar  and  uphold- 
ing stay  of  truth.  To  this  Church  belong  the  keys,  where- 
with heaven  is  locked  and  unlocked  ;  for  that  is  done  by  the 
ministration  of  the  word :  whereunto  properly  appertaineth 
the  power  to  bind  and  loose ;  to  hold  for  guilty,  and  forgive 
sins.  So  that  whosoever  believeth  the  gospel  preached  in 
this  Church,  he  shall  be  saved ;  but  whosoever  believeth  not, 
he  shall  be  damned."  {Ibid.,  pp.  41,  4/|.,  45.) 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  XI.  Articles  of  1559  —  Jf-wel's  Apology  —  Defence  of  the  Apology 
—  Nowell's  Catechism. 

IN  the  interval  of  thirteen  years,  which  elapsed  between 
the  accession  of  Elizabeth  and  the  year  1571,  when  sub- 
scription to  the  XXXIX.  Articles  of  Religion  was  first  re- 
quired by  a  canon  of  the  Convocation,  "  another  independent 
test  of  doctrine,"  known   as  the  Eleven  Articles, 
(1559,)  was   put   forth   by  the   English   bishops.        ^.^ '    ' 
Of  these  articles  the   third  ''acknowledges  that        j--g 
Church  to  be  the  spouse  of  Christ,  wherein  the 
word  of  God  is  truly  taught,  the  sacraments  orderly  minis- 
tered according  to  Christ's  institution,  and  the  authority  of 
the  keys  duly  used;  and  that  every  such  particular  church 
hath  authority  to  institute,  to  change,  clean  to  put  away  cere- 
monies, and  other  ecclesiastical  rites,  as  they  be  superfluous 
or  be  absurd,  and  to  constitute  other  making  more  to  seemli- 
ness,  to  order,  or  edification." 

The  fourtJi  "confesses  that  it  is  not  lawful  for  any  man  to 
take  upon  him  any  office  or  ministry,  either  ecclesiastical  or 
secular,  but  such  only  as  are  lawfully  thereunto  called  by  their 
high  authorities,  according  to  the  ordinances  of  this  realm." 
The  fifth  asserts  the  royal  supremacy,  as  expressed  in  an  act 
of  Parliament,  and  as  explained  by  her  majesty's  "  Injunc- 
tions." The  sixth  denies  the  papal  monarchy,  on  the  ground 
that  it  is  "  contrary  to  Scripture  and  to  the  example  of  the 
primitive  Church." 

A  semi-symbolical  authority  attaches  to  two  works  of  this 
period,  Bishop  ]y.\nki!?>  Apology  of  the  Church  ofEfigland,  (i  562,) 
[No.  60,]  and  Dean  Nowell's  Catechism^  (i570,  first  written  in 
Latin,  in  1563,  and  sanctioned  by  Convocation.)  [No.  70.] 

179 


l80        THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Of  the  Apology,  five  chapters,  ii.-vii.,  treat  oi  the  Church  and 

ministry,  exhibiting  the  Anglican   doctrine   in  opposition  to 

that  of  Rome :   "  We  believe  that  there   is   one 

A  ^o  ^  Church  of  God,  and  that  the  same  is  not  shut  up 
(as  in  times  past  among  the  Jews)  into  some 
corner  or  kingdom,  but  that  it  is  Catholic  and  universal,  and 
dispersed  throughout  the  whole  world ;  so  that  there  is  now 
no  nation  which  can  truly  complain  that  they  be  shut  forth, 
and  may  not  be  one  of  the  Church  and  people  of  God  ;  and 
that  this  Church  is  the  kingdom,  the  body,  and  the  spouse  of 
Christ ;  and  that  Christ  alone  is  the  Prince  of  this  kingdom ; 
that  Christ  alone  is  the  head  of  this  body ;  and  that  Christ 
alone  is  the  bridegroom  of  this  spouse."  (Chap,  ii.) 

"  Furthermore,  that  there  be  divers  degrees  of  ministers  in 
the  Church ;  whereof  some  be  deacons,  some  priests,  some 
bishops ;  to  which  is  committed  the  office  to  instruct  the  peo- 
ple, and  the  whole  charge  and  setting  forth  of  religion.  .  .  . 
There  neither  is,  nor  can  be  any  one  man,  which  may  have 
the  whole  superiority  in  this  universal  state ;  for  that  Christ  is 
ever  present  to  assist  his  Church,  and  needeth  not  any  man 
to  supply  his  room,  as  his  only  heir  to  all  his  substance ;  and 
that  there  can  be  no  one  mortal  creature,  which  is  able  to 
comprehend  or  conceive  in  his  mind  the  Universal  Church, 
that  is,  to  wit,  all  the  parts  of  the  world,  much  less  able  to 
put  them  in  order,  and  to  govern  them  rightly  and  duly. 
For  all  the  apostles,  as  Cyprian  saith,  were  of  like  power 
among  themselves,  and  the  rest  were  the  same  that  Peter  was. 
And  as  Hierome  saith,  *  all  bishops  wheresoever  they  be,  at 
Rome,  at  Eugubium,  at  Constantinople,  etc.,  be  all  of  like 
pre-eminence  and  of  like  priesthood.'  And,  as  Cyprian  saith, 
'  there  is  but  one  bishopric,  and  that  a  piece  thereof  is  per- 
fectly and  wholly  holden  of  every  particular  bishop.'  And 
according  to  the  judgment  of  the  Niccne  Council,  we  say  that 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  hath  no  more  jurisdiction  over  the  Church 
of  God,  than  the  rest  of  the  patriarchs,  either  of  Alexandria 
or  Antiochia,  have. 

"Moreover,  we  say  that  the  minister  ought  lawfully,  duly, 


JEWEL   S    APOLOGY.  l8l 

and  orderly  to  be  preferred  to  that  office,  and  that  no  man 
hath  power  to  wrest  himself  into  the  holy  ministry  at  his  own 
pleasure  ;  .  .  .  that  Christ  hath  given  to  his  ministers  power 
to  bind,  to  loose,  to  open,  to  shut,  and  that  the  office  of 
loosing  consisteth  in  this  point,  that  the  minister  should 
either  offer  by  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  the  merits  of 
Christ,  and  full  pardon  to  such  as  have  lowly  and  contrite 
hearts,  and  do  unfeignedly  repent  them,  pronouncing  unto 
the  same  a  sure  and  undoubted  forgiveness  of  their  sins,  and 
hope  of  everlasting  salvation  ;  or  else,  that  the  minister,  when 
any  have  offended  their  brothers'  minds  with  a  great  offence, 
and  with  a  notable  and  open  fault,  whereby  they  have  as  it 
were  banished,  and  made  themselves  strangers  from  the  com- 
mon fellowship,  and  from  the  body  of  Christ,  then  after  per- 
fect amendment  of  such  persons,  doth  reconcile  them  and 
bring  them  home  again,  and  restore  them  to  the  unity  and 
company  of  the  faithful.  We  say  also,  that  the  minister  doth 
execute  the  authority  of  binding  and  shutting,  as  often  as  he 
shutteth  up  the  gate  of  heaven  against  the  unbelieving  and 
stubborn  persons,  denouncing  unto  them  God's  vengeance 
and  everlasting  punishment;  or  else  when  he  doth  quite  shut 
them  out  from  the  bosom  of  the  Church  by  open  excommuni- 
cation. Out  of  doubt,  what  sentence  soever  the  minister  of 
God  shall  give  in  this  sort,  God  himself  doth  so  well  allow  of 
it,  that  whatsoever  here  on  earth  by  their  means  is  loosed 
and  bound,  God  himself  will  bind  and  confirm  the  same  in 
heaven. 

"And  touching  the  keys,  wherewith  they  may  either  shut  or 
open  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  we  with  Chrysostom  say  they  be 
'  the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures ; '  with  Tertullian  we  say 
they  be  '  the  interpretation  of  the  law ; '  and  with  Eusebius  we 
call  them  '  the  word  of  God.' 

"  Moreover,  that  Christ's  disciples  did  receive  this  authority 
...  to  the  end  they  should  go,  they  should  teach,  they  should 
publish  abroad  the  gospel,  and  be  unto  the  believing  a  sweet 
savor  of  life  unto  life,  and  unto  the  unbelieving  and  unfaithful 
a  savor  of  death  unto  death.     Seeing  then  the  key,  whereby 


l82  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

the  way  and  entry  to  the  kingdom  of  God  is  opened  unto  us, 
is  the  word  of  the  gospel,  ...  we  say  plainly,  where  the  same 
word  is  not,  there  is  not  the  key.  And  seeing  one  manner 
of  word  is  given  to  all,  and  one  only  key  belongeth  to  all,  we 
say  that  there  is  but  one  only  power  of  all  ministers,  as  con- 
cerning opening  and  shutting." 

In  the  Defence  of  the  Apology,  Jewel  affirms  that  "  great  and 
worthy  is  the  authority  of  the  Church  of  God ;  yet  is  not  the 
truth  of  God's  gospel  always  known  by  the  name  of  the 
Church ;  but,  contrariwise,  the  true  Church  is  always  known 

by  the  s^ospel."  (Vol.  iii.,  p.  ^26.)     "  It  is  not  suf- 
the  \polocrv    hcient  to  claim  succession  of  place,  it  behoveth 

us  rather  to  have  regard  to  the  succession  of 
doctrine.  So  saith  St.  Augustine :  *  The  outward  mark  or 
right  of  a  bishop  many  give  to  wolves,  and  be  v/olves  them- 
selves.' Therefore  the  ancient  father  Irenaeus  giveth  us  this 
good  counsel :  '  It  becometh  us  to  obey  those  priests  in  the 
Church  which  have  their  succession  from  the  apostles ;  and 
together  with  the  succession  of  their  bishoprics,  according  to 
the  good  will  of  God  the  Father,  have  received  the  undoubted 
gift  of  the  truth.'"  {Id.,  p.  349.) 

Nowell's  Catechism,  in  its  exposition  of  "  the  fourth  part 
of  the  Creed,"  gives  the  following  "  definition  of  the  Church"  : 
"  The  Church  is  the  body  of  the  Christian  commonweal ;  that 
is,  the  universal   number  and   fellowship  of  all  the   faithful, 

whom  God  through  Christ  hath  before  all  begin- 
Catechism     "^"S  ^^  time  appointed  to  everlasting  life."  .  .  . 

**  The  Jwliness  of  the  Church  is  not  yet  full  and 
perfectly  finished,  but  yet  very  well  begun.  But  when  it  shall 
be  fully  joined  to  Christ,  from  whom  she  hath  all  her  clean- 
ness and  pureness,  then  shall  she  be  clothed  with  innoccncy 
and  holiness,  in  all  points  fully  and  perfectly  finished,  as  with 
a  certain  snowy  white  and  most  pure  garment." 

This  Church  is  Catholic  or  universal  as  comprising  *'  the 
universal  number  of  the  faithful,  that  have  lived,  and  shall 
live  in  all  places  and  ages,  since  the  beginning  of  the  world, 


I 


nowell's  catechism.  1S3 

that  there  may  be  one  body  of  the  Church,  as  there  is  one 
Christ,  the  only  head  of  the  body. 

"These  two  —  'the  holy  Church'  and  'the  communion 
of  saints'  —  belong  all  to  one  thing,  and  are  very  fitly  matched 
and  agreeing  together.  For  this  parcel  doth  somewhat  more 
plainly  express  the  conjoining  and  society  that  is  among  the 
members  of  the  Church,  than  which  there  can  none  be  nearer. 
For,  whereas  God  hath  as  well  in  all  coasts  and  countries 
as  in  all  times  and  ages,  them  that  worship  him  purely  and 
sincerely,  all  they,  though  they  be  severed  and  sundered  by 
divers  and  far  distant  times  and  places,  in  what  nation  soever, 
or  in  what  land  soever  they  be,  are  yet  members  most  nearly 
conjoined  and  knit  together,  of  one  and  of  the  selfsame  body, 
whereof  Christ  is  the  Head;  such  is  the  communion  that  the 
godly  have  with  God  and  among  themselves.  For  they  are 
most  nearly  knit  together  in  community  of  spirit,  of  faith,  of 
sacraments,  of  prayers,  of  forgiveness  of  sins,  of  eternal  felicity, 
and,  finally,  of  all  the  benefits  that  God  giveth  his  Church 
through  Christ.  Yea,  they  are  so  joined  together  with  most 
strait  bonds  of  concord  and  love,  they  have  so  all  one  mind, 
that  the  profit  of  any  one  and  of  them  all  is  all  one ;  and  to 
this  endeavor  they  do  most  bend  themselves,  how  they  may 
with  interchange  of  beneficial  doings,  with  counsel  and  help, 
further  each  other  in  all  things,  and  specially  to  attaining  of 
that  blessed  and  eternal  life.  But  because  this  communion 
of  saints  cannot  be  perceived  by  our  senses,  nor  by  any  nat- 
ural kind  of  knowledge  or  force  of  understanding,  as  other  civil 
communities  and  fellowships  of  men  may  be,  therefore  it  is 
here  rightly  placed  among  these  things  that  lie  in  belief  .  .  . 

"  But  may  the  Church  be  otherwise  known  than  by  believ- 
ing—  by  faith?  Here  in  the  Creed  is  properly  entreated  of 
the  congregation  of  those  whom  God  by  his  secret  election 
hath  adopted  to  himself  through  Christ,  which  Church  can 
neither  be  seen  with  eyes  nor  can  continually  be  known  by 
signs.  Yet  there  is  a  Church  of  God  visible,  or  that  may  be 
seen,  the  tokens  or  marks  whereof  he  doth  show  and  open 
unto  us.  .  .  .  The  visible  Church  is  nothing  else  but  a  certain 


184         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

multitude  of  men,  which,  in  what  place  soever  they  be,  do 
profess  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  pure  and  sincere,  even  the  same 
which  the  evangelists  and  apostles  have,  in  the  everlasting 
monuments  of  holy  Scriptures,  faithfully  disclosed  to  memory, 
and  which  do  truly  call  upon  God  the  Father  in  the  name  of 
Christ,  and  moreover  do  use  his  mysteries,  commonly  called 
sacraments,  with  the  same  pureness  and  simplicity  (as  touch- 
ing their  substance)  which  the  apostles  of  Christ  used  and 
have  put  in  writing.  .  .  .  The  sincere  preaching  of  the  gospel 
—  that  is  to  say,  of  the  benefits  of  Christ,  invocation  and  ad- 
ministration of  the  sacraments  —  these  are  indeed  the  chief 
and  the  necessary  marks  of  the  visible  Church,  such  as  with- 
out the  which  it  cannot  be  indeed,  nor  rightly  be  called,  the 
Church  of  Christ.  But  yet  also  in  the  same  Church,  if  it  be 
well  ordered,  there  shall  be  seen  to  be  observed  a  certain 
order  and  manner  of  governance,  and  such  a  form  of  ecclesi- 
astical discipline,  that  it  shall  not  be  free  for  any  that  abideth 
in  that  flock  publicly  to  speak  or  do  anything  wickedly  or  in 
heinous  sort  without  punishment;  yea,  and  so  that  in  that 
congregation  of  men  all  offences  (so  far  as  is  possible)  be 
avoided.  But  this  discipline  since  long  time  past,  by  little 
and  little  decaying,  as  the  manners  of  men  be  corrupt  and  out 
of  right  course,  specially  of  the  rich  and  men  of  power,  which 
will  needs  have  impunity  and  most  free  liberty  to  sin  and  do 
wickedly,  this  grave  manner  of  looking  to  them  and  of  chas- 
tisement can  hardly  be  maintained  in  churches.  But  in  what- 
soever assembly  the  word  of  God,  the  calling  upon  Him,  and 
his  sacraments  are  purely  and  sincerely  retained,  it  is  no 
doubt  that  there  is  also  the  Church  of  Christ. 

"Are  not,  then,  all  they  that  be  in  this  visible  Church  of  the 
number  of  the  elect  to  everlasting  life  ? 

"  Many,  by  hypocrisy  and  counterfeiting  of  godliness,  do  join 
themselves  to  this  fellowship,  which  are  nothing  less  than  true 
members  of  the  Church.  But,  forasmuch  as  wheresoever  the 
word  of  God  is  sincerely  taught,  and  His  sacraments  rightly 
ministered,  there  are  ever  some  appointed  to  salvation  by 
Christ,  we  count  all  that  whole  company  to  be  the  Church  of 


NOWELL   S    CATECHISM.  1S5 

God,  seeing  that  Christ  also  promiseth  that  himself  will  be 
present  with  two  or  three  that  be  gathered  together  in  his 
name. 

"  Why  dost  thou,  by  and  by,  after  the  Church,  make  men- 
tion of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  ? 

"  First,  because  the  keys,  wherewith  heaven  is  to  be  shut 
and  opened,  tliat  is,  the  power  of  binding  and  loosing,  of  re- 
scrv^ing  and  forgiving  sins,  which  standeth  in  the  ministry  of 
the  word  of  God,  is  by  Christ  given  and  committed  to  the 
Church,  and  properly  belongeth  unto  the  Church.  Secondly, 
because  no  man  obtaineth  forgiveness  of  sins  that  is  not  a  true 
member  of  the  body  of  Christ,  that  is,  such  a  one  as  doth  not 
earnestly,  godlily,  holily,  yea,  and  continuingly  and  to  the  end 
embrace  and  maintain  the  common  fellowship  of  the  Church. 

"  Is  there,  then,  no  hope  of  salvation  out  of  the  Church  ? 

"  Out  of  it  can  be  nothing  but  damnation,  death,  and  de- 
struction. For  what  hope  of  life  can  remain  to  the  members 
when  they  are  pulled  asunder  and  cut  off  from  the  head  and 
body?  They,  therefore,  that  seditiously  stir  up  discord  in  the 
Church  of  God,  and  make  division  and  strife  in  it,  and  trouble 
it  with  sects,  have  all  hope  of  safety  by  forgiveness  of  sins  cut 
off  from  them,  till  they  be  reconciled  and  return  to  agreement 
and  favor  with  the  Church." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  Tridentine  Doctrine  of  the  Church  —  Creed  of  Pius  IV.  —  Catechism 
OF  THE  Council  —  The  Church  Triumphant  and  the  Church  Militant 
Defined  —  The  Four  Notes  of  the  Church  —  "The  Communion  of 
Saints  "  —  Sacrament  of  Order  —  Order  Defined  —  The  Priesthood  — 
Priestly  Functions  —  Degrees  in  the  Priesthood  —  The  Minister  of 
the  Sacrament  —  Effects  of  the  Sacrament. 

THE  Decrees  of  the  Cotnicil  ^ Trent,  put  forth  in  1564, 
contain  no  definition  of  the  Church.     The  Creed  of  Pope 
Pius  IV.,  (1564,)  and  the   Catechism  of  the  Coimeil,  (1566,) 
[No.  63,]  supply  the  deficiency.     In  the  former 
document  —  a  brief  epitome  of  the  chief  heads  of 
Tridentine  doctrine,  universally  received  as  an  accurate  sum- 
mary of  the  Romish  faith  —  is  the  following  article : 
Pius  IV       "  -'■  acknowledge  the  Holy  Catholic  and  Apostolic 
Church  of  Rome  to  be  the  mother  and  mistress 
of  all  churches  ;  and  I  promise  and  swear  true  obedience  to  the 
Roman   Pontiff,  successor  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles,  St. 
Peter,  and  the  vicegerent  of  Jesus  Christ." 

The  statements  of  the  Catechism  are  clear  and  ample ;  of 

these   I   here   cite   only  the   more  important:  "The  Church, 

according  to  St.  Augustine's  definition,  is  the  body 

Catechismus  -.,-,,.  ,     .  ,  ,  ,  ,    ,, 

Romanus.     ^^  ^"^  faithful,  dispersed  throughout  the  world  ; 
a  definition  not  sufficiently  comprehensive,  inas- 
much as  "the  Church  consists  principally  of  two  parts,  the  one 
called  the  Church  triumphant,  the  other,  militant.     The  Church 
triumphant  is  the  most  glorious  and  happy  assem- 
™  .       ,     ,   blague  of  blessed  spirits,  and  of  those   who   have 

Tnuinpnant.  =>  r  » 

triumphed  over  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil, 
and  who,  now  free  and  secure  from  the  troubles  of  this  life, 

enjoy  everlasting  bliss But  the  Church  militant  is  the  society 

186 


THE    CHURCH     MILITANT.  iS/ 

of  all  the  faithful  who  still  dwell  on  earth,  and  is  called  mili- 
tant because  it  wages  eternal  war  with  those  most  implacable 
enemies,  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil.  We  are  not, 
however,  to  infer  that  there  are  two  churches;  but  there  are 

two  constituent  parts  of  the  same  Church.    In  the 

...         ,         ...        /■.  ^  .  -  The  Church 

Church  militant  there  are  two  classes  of  persons,      Militant 

the  good  and  the  bad;  and  the  bad  profess  the 
same  faith,  and  partake  of  the  same  sacraments,  differing  in 
life  and  morals.  Who  they  are  that  are  good  may  be  conjec- 
tured, but  cannot  be  known  with  certainty.  Of  this  part  of 
the  Church,  therefore,  we  are  not  to  suppose  Christ  our  Saviour 
to  speak,  when  he  refers  us  to  the  Church,  and  commands  us 
to  obey  her;  for,  unknown  as  is  that  portion  of  the  Church, 
how  can  any  one  be  certain  to  whose  decision  he  should 
recur,  whose  authority  obey? 

"  Thus  is  the  Church  known,  and  is  compared  to  a  city  set 
upon  a  hill,  and  seen  from  every  side ;  for  as  all  must  yield 
obedience  to  her  authority,  it  is  necessary  that  she  be  known. 
.  .  .  But  although  both  the  good  and  the  bad  belong  to  the 
Church,yet  it  is  to  be  explained  to  the  faithful  —  that  very  differ- 
ent is  the  condition  of  each  class.  For  the  wicked  are  con- 
tained in  the  Church  as  the  chaff  is  minq-led  with  the  crrain  on 
the  threshing-floor,  or  as  dead  members  sometim.es  remain  at- 
tached to  a  (living)  body. 

"Hence  only  three  classes  of  persons  are  excluded  from 
her  pale  :  first,  infidels ;  next,  heretics  and  schismatics ;  and 
lastly,  the  excommunicated :  infidels,  because  they  never  be- 
longed to,  and  never  knew  the  Church,  nor  were  ever  made 
partakers  of  the  sacraments,  in  the  communion  of  a  Christian 
people  ;  (this  class  includes  pagans,  Mohammedans,  and  Jews  ;) 
heretics  and  schismatics,  because  they  have  severed  them- 
selves from  the  Church.  They  are  still,  however,  subject  to 
the  power  of  the  Church,  seeing  that  they  may  be  cited  before 
her  tribunal,  punished  and  condemned  by  anathema.  Finally, 
excommunicated  persons  also,  because  excluded  by  her  sen- 
tence from  the  Church,  belong  not  to  her  communion,  until 
they  repent.     As  to  the  rest,  although  shameful  and  wicked 


l88         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

persons,  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  still  continue  in  the 
Church  ;  and  of  this  the  faithful  arc  frequently  to  be  informed, 
in  order  that  they  may  have  the  assurance  that  even  were  the 
lives  of  her  ministers  debased  by  crime,  they  are  still  included 
within  her  pale,  and  forfeit,  on  that  account,  none  of  their 
prerogatives. 

"The  first  distinctive  character   of  the   true    Church   con- 
sists in  its  unity.     So  vast  a  multitude,  although  scattered  far 
and  wide,  is  called  one,  for  the  reasons  named  by 
Church-         ^^-  -^^"^  —  ^^^^  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism.     This 
^  ^^  .  Church  has,  also,  one  ruler  and  e^overnor,  the  in- 

I.  Unity.  '  '  &  » 

visible,  Christ,  whom  the  eternal  Father  JiatJi  made 
head  over  all  the  Church,  which  is  his  body ;  but  the  visible 
is  he  who,  the  legitimate  successor  of  Peter,  the  prince  of  the 
apostles,  occupies  the  See  of  Rome. 

"  That  this  visible  head  was  necessary  to  establish  and  pre- 
serve the  unity  of  the  Church,  is  the  unanimous  reasoning 
and  opinion  of  the  Fathers.  .  .  .  Should  any  one  object  that 
the  Church,  content  with  one  head  and  spouse,  Jesus  Christ, 
requires  no  other  beside,  an  answer  is  readily  found,  for,  as 
we  have  Christ  not  only  the  author  of  all  the  sacraments,  but 
also  their  inward  minister  —  for  He  it  is  that  baptizes  and 
absolves  ;  and  yet  he  appoints  men  as  external  ministers  of 
the  sacraments  —  so  has  he  placed  over  his  Church,  which 
He  governs  by  his  most  inward  spirit,  a  man  to  be  the  vicar 
and  minister  of  his  power ;  for  as  a  visible  Church  requires  a 
visible  head,  our  Saviour  appointed  Peter  head  and  pastor 
of  all  the  faithful,  when,  in  the  most  ample  terms.  He  com- 
mitted to  his  care  the  feeding  of  his  sheep,  so  as  that  He 
willed  his  successor  to  have  the  very  same  power  of  ruling 
and  governing  the  whole  Church." 

The  Church  is  also  called  one  as  being  animated  by  one 
and  the  same  Spirit,  "  who  imparts  grace  to  the  faithful,  as  the 
soul  imparts  life  to  the  members  of  the  body ;  as  all  being 
called  to  one  hope,  viz.,  eternal  life ;  "  and  as  all  holding  and 
professing  one  faith,  and  one  baptism,  which  is  the  sacrament 
of  the  Christian  faith. 


NOTES    OF    THE    CHURCH,  I  Sq 

"As  to  the  second  distinctive  mark  of  the  Church  —  holiness  : 
The  Church  is  called  holy  because  she  is  consecrated  and  dedi- 
cated to  God,  ...  as  under  the  old  law,  vessels,  vestments, 
altars,  when  appropriated  to  divine  worship,  are  called  holy. 
The  Church,  although  containing  many  sinners, 
is  called  holy;  .  .  .  the  faithful,  though  offending  '  ^  ^'^'^ '  y* 
in  many  things,  are  called  holy,  because  they  have  been  made 
tht  people  of  God,  or  have  consecrated  themselves  to  Christ 
by  faith  and  baptism.  Hence,  St.  Paul  calls  the  Corinthians 
sanctified  and  holy,  although  there  were  some  amongst  them 
whom  he  sharply  rebukes  as  carnal,  and  even  charges  with 
grosser  crimes.  She  is  also  to  be  called  holy,  because,  as  the 
body,  she  is  united  to  her  head,  Christ  the  Lord,  the  fountain 
of  all  holiness,  from  whom  flow  the  graces  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  the  riches  of  the  divine  bounty.  Yet  further,  the  Church 
alone  has  the  legitimate  worship  of  sacrifice,  and  the  salutary 
use  of  the  sacraments,  by  which,  as  by  the  efficacious  instru- 
ments of  divine  grace,  God  effects  true  holiness  ;  so  that  wJw- 
soever  are  really  holy  cannot  be  outside  this  Church. 

"  The  third  distinctive  mark  of  the  Church   is,  that  she   is 

called  Catholic,  that  is  universal — as  embracincf 

III 
in  the  bosom  of  her  love  all  mankind ;  "...  and    Catholicity 

as  comprehending  "  all  the  faithful  who  have  ex- 
isted from  Adam  up  to  the  present  day,  or  who  shall  exist  to 
the  end  of  time." 

"  We  may  also  know  the  true  Church  from  her  origin,  which 
she  derives,  under  the  revelation  of  grace,  from  the  apostles  ; 
for  her  doctrines  are  truths  neither  novel  nor  of  recent  oricfin, 
but  delivered  of  old  by  the  apostles,  and  diffused 
throughout  the  whole  world.  .  .  .  Wherefore,  that  Apostolicity. 
all    might   know  the   true   Catholic   Church,   the 
Fathers,  guided  by  the  spirit  of  God,  added  in  the  Creed  the 
word  APOSTOLIC.     For  the  Holy  Ghost,  who    presides    over 
the  Church,  governs  her  by  no  other  than  apostolic  ministers; 
and  this  Spirit  was  first  imparted  to   the  apostles,  and   has, 
by  the  supreme  goodness  of  God,  always  remained  in  the 
Church." 


IQO         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

"  Being  thus  divinely  guided,  this  one  Church  cannot  err  in 
deh'vering  the  discipline  of  faith  and  morals  ;  but  all  other 
societies,  calling  themselves  churches,  guided  as  they  are  by 
the  spirit  of  the  devil,  are  necessarily  sunk  in  the  most  per- 
nicious errors  both  of  doctrine  and  morals." 

In  answer  to  the  question,  how  belief  in  the  Church  belongs 
to  the  Articles  of  Faith  ?  the  explanation  is,  that  although  the 
Church,  so  far  as  it  is  a  community  of  men  consecrated  to 
Christ,  is  a  visible  body,  and,  as  such,  not  apprehended  by  faith, 
yet  the  mysteries,  that  is,  the  sacraments  of  the  Church,  belong 
to  the  sphere  of  faith  ;  and  it  is  "  by  faith  that  we  understand 
that  to  the  Church  have  been  committed  the  keys  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  ;  the  power  of  remitting  sins  ;  of  excom- 
municating;  and  of  consecrating  the  real  body  of  Christ." 

"  The  last  clause  of  this  article  —  *  the  communion  of  saints,' 

is  a  sort  of  explanation  of  the  preceding  one ;   and  is  mainly 

to  be  understood  as  expressing  that  participation 

^^  .       which  all  the  members  of  the  Church  have  in  her 

Communion  -r.  ,  i  i  hi 

of  Saints,     sacraments.     But  although    common    to    all    the 

(seven)  sacraments,  because  they  all  unite  us  to 

God,  and  render  us  partakers  of  Him  whose  grace  we  receive  ; 

this  word  coimiuinion  belongs  in  a  more  special  manner  to  the 

Eucharist,  which  accomplishes  this  communion  itself 

"  But  there  is  another  communion  in  the  Church  :  ever}' 
pious  and  holy  deed  performed  by  one  appertains  to  all,  and 
becomes  profitable  to  all,  through  charity  :  as  in  the  human 
body,  according  to  the  image  so  often  used  in  Scripture  to 
illustrate  the  constitution  of  the  Church  :  *  if  one  member 
suffer,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it ;  or  one  member  be 
honored,  all  the  members  rejoice  with  it.'  " 

"  But  they  only  who  lead  a  Christian  life  in  charity  .  .  .  enjoy 
the  participation  of  so  many  and  so  great  blessings.  The  dead 
members,  men,  that  is  to  say,  who  are  bound  in  the  thraldom 
of  sins,  and  estranged  from  the  grace  of  God,  although  not 
deprived  of  the  advantage  of  continuing  to  be  members  of 
this  body,  yet,  as  dead  members,  lack  the  spiritual  fruit  which 
is  communicated  to  just  and  pious   men.     However,  as   they 


ORDER    A    SACRAMENT.  IQI 

are  in  the  Church,  they  are  assisted  in  recovering  lost  grace 
and  life,  by  those  who  live  by  the  Spirit;  and  they  enjoy 
those  fruits  which  are,  we  cannot  doubt,  denied  to  such  as 
are  utterly  cut  off  from  the  Church."  (Chap,  x.,  Qucs.  1-25.) 

Of  the  Sacranicnt  of  Order  the  Tridentine  doctrine,  as  set 
forth  in  the  twenty-third  session  of  the  council,  is  fully  ex- 
hibited in  the  seventh  chapter  of  the  second  part 
of  the  Catechism.     The  leading  points  of  this  ex-      oforder 
position    are    embraced    in    the    following-  brief 
abstract : 

"  The  appellation  Order,  understood  in  its  strict  and  proper 
acceptation,  is  the  disposition  of  superior  and  inferior  things, 
which  are  so  well  adapted  to  each  other  as  to  stand 

,        ,      .  r-  .    .  ,  .     .  What  is 

m  reciprocal  relation.     Comprising,  as  the  ministry       order? 
does,  many  gradations  and  various  functions,  and 
disposed,  as  all  these  are,  with  regularity,  it  is  appropriately 
called  the  sacrament  of  Order. 

"The  power  conferred  by  God  on  his  Church  and  her  min- 
isters is  twofold  :  of  order  and  of  jurisdiction.  The  power  of 
order  has  reference  to  the  real  body  of  Christ  our  Lord  in  the 
holy  Eucharist;  that  of  jurisdiction,  altogether  to  his  mystical 
body,  embracing  the  government  and  guidance  of  the  flock 
of  God. 

"  The  power  of  order  includes  not  only  the  prerogative  of 
consecrating  the  Eucharist,  but  also  of  preparing  the  souls  of 
men  for  its  reception,  and  embraces  whatever  else  has  refer- 
ence in  any  way  to  the  Eucharist. 

"  Whereas  a  sacrament  is  a  sign  of  a  sacred  thing,  and  as 

the  external  forms  used  in  this  consecration  are  significant  of 

the  grace  and  power  conferred  on  him  who  is  consecrated,  it 

follows  that  order  is  truly  a  sacrament.     Hence 

the  bishop,  handin^r  to  him  who  is  beinff  ordained         ^^^    ^ 
^'  =»  »  sacrament. 

priest  a  cup  containing  wine  and  water,  and  a  paten 
with  bread,  says:  Receive  the  poivcr  of  ojferbig  sacrifice,  etc.;  by 
which  words  the  Church  hath  always  taught  that,  whilst  the 
matter  is  presented,  the  power  of  consecrating  the  Eucharist 
is   conferred,  a  character  being  impressed  upon  the  soul,  to 


192  THE     DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

which  is  attached  grace  for  the  due  discharge  of  this  ministry, 
as  the  apostle  declares,  2  Tim.  \.  6,  sq. 

"  The  number  of  orders  of  ministers,  according  to  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  Church,  is  seven  :  porter,  reader, 

Number  of  .  .  ^r 

Orders.      cxorcist,  acolyte,  sub-deacon,  deacon,  priest.     Of 
these  orders  the  last  three  are  greater,  called  holy, 
the  first  four  are  lesser,  called  minor  orders. 

**  The  third  and  highest  degree  of  all  the  holy  orders  is  the 

priesthood.     The  ancient  fathers  distinguish  persons  end-.ied 

with  the  priesthood  by  two  names  :  presbyters,  or 

Priesthood,    elders,  and  priests,  (sacerdotes,)  because  they  are 

consecrated  to  God,  and  because  to  them  it  belongs 

to  administer  the  sacraments,  and  to  handle  sacred  things. 

"  There  is  a  twofold  priesthood :  the  internal,  to  which  all 

the  faithful  belong,  offering,  as  they  do,  spiritual  sacrifices  unto 

God,  {Rev.  i.  5,   i  Pet.  ii.  5,  Rom.  xii.  i,  Ps.  1,  19;) 

Twofold.  ,     ,  7       1.,.  ,-        , 

and  the  external,  which  is  confined  to  certain  men 
who,  consecrated  to  God  by  the  lawful  imposition  of  hands, 
and  the  solemn  ceremonies  of  the  Church,  are  devoted  to  some 
particular  sacred  office  of  the  ministry. 

"  The  office  of  the  priest  is  to  offer  sacrifice  unto  God,  and 
to  administer  the  sacraments  of  the  Church.  . .  .  By  the  rites 

used  at  his  consecration  he  is  constituted  an  inter- 
functions      preter  and  mediator  between  God  and  man,  which 

must  be  deemed  the  principal  function  of  the 
priesthood ;  and  he  has,  moreover,  bestowed  upon  him  the 
celestial  power  of  remitting  and  retaining  sins. 

"  The  priesthood,  although  one  order,  has  yet  different  de- 
grees of  dignity  and  power.  T\iQ:  first  is  that  oi priests,  already 
explained.     The  second  is  that  of  bishops,  who  are  placed  over 

their  respective  sees,  to  govern  not  only  the  other 

egiees       ministers  of  the  Church,  but  the  faithful  people, 
^'^  the  ,      .  ,  ,     .    .,  1 

Priesthood.    '^"^  With  supreme  care  and  vigilance  to  watch  over 

their  salvation.  .  .  .  Bishops  are  frequently  in  Scrip- 
ture called  the  pastors  of  the  sheep.  {Acts  xx.  28.)  They  are 
also  called  pontiffs,  a  name  borrowed  from  the  ancient  Romans, 
and  used  by  them  to  designate  their  chief-priests.     The  third 


MINISTER     OF    THE    SACRAMENT.  1 93 

degree  is  that  o{  archlusliops,  who  preside  over  several  bishops, 
and  who  are  also  called  metropolitans,  because  placed  over  the 
metropolis  of  the  province.  PatriarcJis  occupy  the  fourth  place, 
and  are,  as  the  name  imports,  the  first  and  supreme  fathers  in 
the  episcopal  order.  Formerly,  besides  the  Supreme  Roman 
Pontiff,  there  were  but  four  patriarchs  in  the  Church,  whose 
dignity,  however,  was  not  the  same ;  for  the  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople was  first  in  rank,  next  of  Alexandria,  third  of  An- 
tioch,  fourth  of  Jerusalem.  Beyond  all  these,  the  Catholic 
Church  has  ever  revered  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  of  Rome,  whom 
Cyril  of  Alexandria  denominated,  in  the  Council  of  Ephesus, 
the  chief  bishop,  father,  and  patriarch  of  the  whole  world. 
And  whereas  he  sitteth  in  that  chair  in  which  it  is  certain  that 
Peter,  the  prince  of  the  apostles,  sat  to  the  close  of  life,  the 
Catholic  Church  recognizes  in  his  person  the  highest  degree 
of  dignity,  and  the  amplitude  of  jurisdiction ;  a  dignity  and  a 
jurisdiction  not  based  on  any  synodal,  or  other  human  con- 
stitutions, but  given  from  on  high.  Wherefore,  as  successor 
to  Peter,  and  the  true  and  legitimate  vicar  on  earth  of  Christ 
the  Lord,  he  presides  over  the  Universal  Church,  the  father 
and  governor  of  all  the  faithful,  of  bishops,  and  of  all  other 
prelates,  be  their  office  and  power  what  it  may." 

"To  the  bishop  and  the   bishop  alone   it  belongs  as  his 
proper    office    to    confer   holy   orders ;    for    sub- 
deacons,  deacons,   and    priests    are    ordained   by    /^"^^ 

'  '  ^  .     the  sacrament 

one  bishop   only,  but  according  to  an   apostolic      of  order. 

tradition,  which  has  always  been  preserved  in  the 
Church,  a  bishop  is  consecrated  by  three  bishops. 

**  Though  primarily  instituted  with  reference  to  the  advantage 
of  the  Church,  the  sacrament  of  order  imparts  to  the  soul  of 
him  who  receives  it  sanctifying  grace,  by  which  he  is  qualified 
to  discharge  with  propriety  the  duties  of  his  office, 
and  to   administer  the   sacraments;   even   as  the    sacrament. 
grace  of  baptism  qualifies  for  the  reception  of  the 
other   sacraments.     By  this   sacrament,   also,   is   conferred  a 
special  power  in  reference  to  the  most  holy  Eucharist,  a  power 
full   and   perfect   in  the  priest,  who  alone  can   consecrate  the 


194         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

body  and  blood  of  our  Lord  ;  but  in  the  other  subordinate 
ministers,  greater  or  less  in  proportion  to  their  nearer  approx- 
imation to  the  sacred  duties  of  the  altar.  This  power  is  also 
denominated  a  spiritual  character,  because,  by  a  certain  in- 
terior mark  impressed  on  the  soul,  those  who  have  received 
holy  orders  are  distinguished  from  the  rest  of  the  faithful,  and 
devoted  to  the  divine  service."  (i  T'uii.  iv.  13;  2  Tim.  i.  6.) 

Such,  in  a  brief  abstract,  is  the  teaching  of  the  Roman 
Catechism  in  regard  to  the  Christian  ministry,  based  on  the 
decrees  of  the  twenty-third  session  of  the  Council  of  Trent. 
But  while  the  decrees  contain  the  doctrinal  statements  of  the 
council,  in  a  positive  form,  it  is  in  the  canons  anathematizing 
the  opposite  views,  that  the  points  of  difference  between  the 
Romish  and  the  Protestant  teaching  are  most  clearly  brought 
to  light. 

Thus  the  eight  canons  of  the  twenty-third  session  anathe- 
matize any  one  who  may  affirm,  I.  That  there  is  not  in  the  New 
Testament  a  visible  and  external  priesthood;  or  that  there  is 
not  a  power  of  consecrating  and  offering  the  body  and  blood 
of  the  Lord,  and  of  rem.itting  and  retaining  sins  ;  but  that  there 
is  only  the  bare  office  and  ministry  of  preaching  the  gospel  ; 
or  that  those  who  do  not  preach  are  no  priests  at  all ;  11.  That 
there  are  not  in  the  Catholic  Church  both  the  lesser  and 
greater  orders,  through  which,  as  by  divine  degrees,  the  priest- 
hood is  attained  ;  IIL  That  ordination  is  not  a  sacrament,  truly 
and  properly  such,  instituted  by  Christ,  or  that  it  is  only  a  rite 
by  means  of  v/hich  ministers  of  God's  word  and  sacraments  are 
elected  ;  IV.  That  by  means  of  ordination  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
not  given,  and  hence  that  the  bishop  speaks  the  words. 
Receive  the  Holy  Ghost,  without  effect ;  or  that  by  it  a  charac- 
ter is  not  impressed;  or  that  he  who  has  once  been  a  priest 
may  again  become  a  layman  ;  V.  That  the  holy  unction  and 
other  ceremonies  used  in  ordination  are  not  only  unnecessary, 
but  also  pernicious  and  to  be  contemned  ;  VI.  That  there  is 
not  in  the  Catholic  Church  a  hierarchy  instituted  by  divine 
appointment,  consisting  of  bishops,  presbyters  and  ministers; 
VII.  That  bishops  are  not  superior  to  presbyters,  or  that  they 


THE    EFFECTS    OF    THE    SACRAMENT.  I95 

liave  not  the  power  of  confirming  and  ordaining;  or  that  they 
have  it  in  common  with  presbyters  ;  or  that  orders  conferred 
by  them  without  the  consent  or  call  of  the  people,  or  of  the 
secular  power,  are  invalid  ;  or  that  those  who  have  neither 
been  rightly  ordained,  nor  sent  by  ecclesiastical  and  canon- 
ical power,  but  in  some  other  way,  are  lawful  ministers  of  the 
word  and  sacraments;  VIII.  That  bishops  who  are  constituted 
by  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  are  not  lawful  and  true 
bishops,  but  a  human  figment. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

The  Greek  and  Greek-Russian  Church — Definition  of  the  Church  — 
Though  Visible,  an  Object  of  Faith  —  The  Unity  of  the  Church  — 
Communion  of  Saints  —  Invocation  of  Saints  —  Holiness  of  the  Church 
—  Catholicity  —  Indefectibility  —  Exclusiveness  —  Peculiar  Privi- 
leges OF  THE  Eastern  Church  —  Apostolicity  —  The  Hierarchy  — 
Authority  of  CEcumenical  Councils  —  Sacrament  of  Orders. 

WITH  the  doctrine  of  Trent  let  us  compare  that  of  the 
modern  Greek,  or  Greek-Russian  Church,  as  authen- 
tically set  forth   in  the  Catechism  of  the  Orthodox  Catholic, 
Eastern  Church.   [No.  724.] 
"  Q.  What  is  the  Church  ? 

''A.  The  Church  is  a  divinely  instituted  com- 
,  r     J        munity  of  men,  united  by  the  orthodox  faith,  the 

law  of  God,  the  hierarchy,  and  the  sacraments. 
"  Q.  What  is  it  to  believe  in  the  Church  ? 
''A.  It  is  piously  to  honor  the  true  Church  of  Christ,  and 
to  obey  her  doctrine  and  commandments,  from 
,   Vf  ^^      a  conviction  that  crrace    ever  abides  in  her,  and 

the  Church.  ° 

works,  teaches,  and  governs  unto  salvation,  flow- 
ing from  her  One  only  everlasting  Head,  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 

"  Q.  How  can  the  Church,  which  is  visible,  be  the  object 
of  faith,  when  faith,  as  the  apostle  says,  is  'the  evidence  of 
things  not  seen'  ? 

"  A.  First,  though  the  Church  be  visible,  the  grace  of  God 

which  dwells  in  her,  and  in  those  who  are  sancti- 
The  object      -^     ,  .     ,  .  ,,...,.,  , 

of  fxith        "^^  *^  ^"^^^'  ^^  ^^^  ^^  '  ^^^  ^"'^  '^  ^^  which  properly 

constitutes  the  object  of  faith  in  the  Church. 
"  Secondly,  the  Church,  though  visible  so  far  as  she  is  upon 
earth,  and  contains  all  orthodox  Christians  living  upon  earth, 

196 


THE    GREEK    CHURCH.  I97 

still  is  at  the  same  time  invisible,  so  far  as  she  is  also  partially 
in  heaven,  and  contains  all  those  that  have  departed  hence  in 
true  faith  and  holiness. 

"  0.  On  what  may  we  ground  the  idea  that  the  Church  is 
at  once  upon  earth  and  in  heaven  ? 

''A.  On  the  following  words  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  addressed 
to  Christians  :  *  Ye  are  come  unto  Mount  Sion,  and  unto  the 
city  of  the  living  God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,'  etc.  {Hcb.  xii. 
22-24.) 

"  Q.  Why  is  the  Church  One? 

''A.  Because    she    is   one   spiritual   Body,  has   one   Head, 
Christ,  and    is    animated   by  one  Spirit   of  God. 
There  is  one  Body  and  one  Spirit^  even  as  ye  are  "'  ^' 

called  in  one  hope  of  your  calling  ;  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  bap- 
tism ;  07ie  God  and  Father  of  all.  {Eph.  iv.  4-6.) 

'*  Q.  Are  we  still  more  expressly  assured  that  Jesus  Christ 
is  the  one  only  Head  of  the  one  Church  ? 

''A.  The  Apostle  Paul  writes,  that  for  the  Church,  as  the 
building  of  God,  other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is 
laid,  zuhich  is  Jesus  Christ,  (i  Cor.Vn.  10,  11.)  Wherefore  the 
Church,  as  the  Body  of  Christ,  can  have  no  other  Head  than 
Jesus  Christ. 

"  The  Church,  being  to  abide  through  all  generations  of 
time,  needs  also  an  ever-abiding  Head ;  and  such  is  Jesus 
Christ  alone. 

"  Q.  How  does  it  agree  with  the  unity  of  the  Church,  that 
there  are  many  separate  and  independent  churches,  as  those 
of  Jerusalem,  Antioch,  Alexandria,  Constantinople,  Russia? 

''A.  These  are  particular  churches,  or  parts  of  the  one 
Catholic  Church :  the  separateness  of  their  visible  organiza- 
tion does  not  hinder  them  from  being  all  spiritually  great 
members  of  the  one  body  of  the  Universal  Church,  from  hav- 
ing one  Head,  Christ,  and  one  spirit  of  faith  and  grace.  This 
unity  is  expressed  outwardly  by  unity  of  Creed,  and  by  com- 
munion in  Prayer  and  Sacraments. 

"  Q.  Is  there  likewise  unity  between  the  Church  on  earth 
and  the  Church  in  heaven  ? 


198  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

"  A.  Doubtless  there  is,  both  by  their  common   relation  to 
one  Head,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  mutual  communion 
with  one  another. 

Communion  ^  ^     ^tltx  r  •        1  1       /-1  , 

of  Saints.  ^-   ^^^at  means  of  communion  has  the  Church 

on  earth  with  the  Church  in  heaven  ? 

*'  A.  The  prayer  of  faith  and  love.  The  faithful  who  belong 
to   the   Church    militant   upon   earth,   in    offering 

Invocation         ,      .  ^-      1         n  1 

of  Saints  their  prayers  to  God,  call  at  the  same  time  to 
their  aid  the  saints  who  belong  to  the  Church  in 
heaven  ;  and  these,  standing  on  the  highest  steps  of  approach 
to  God,  by  their  prayers  and  intercessions  purify,  strengthen, 
and  offer  before  God  the  prayers  of  the  faithful  living  upon 
earth,  and  by  the  will  of  God  work  graciously  and  beneficently 
upon  them,  either  by  invisible  virtue,  or  by  distinct  appari- 
tions, and  in  divers  other  ways. 

'*  Q.  On  what  is  grounded  the  rule  of  the  Church  upon 
earth  to  invoke  in  prayer  the  Saints  of  the  Church  in  heaven  ? 

''A.  On  a  holy  tradition,  the  principle  of  which  is  to  be 
seen  also  in  holy  Scripture.     For  instance,  when 

Ground  of  ,  1  -r^        .  t  .  •  ^      r         r 

the  practice  ^"^  prophet  David  cries  out  in  prayer,  O  Lord 
God  of  Abraliam,  Isaac,  a7id  of  Israel,  our  fathers  ; 
he  makes  mention  of  saints  in  aid  of  his  prayer,  exactly  as 
now  the  Orthodox  Church  calls  upon  Christ  our  true  God,  by 
the  prayers  of  his  most  pure  Mother  and  all  his  Saints.  (See 
I  Chron.  xxix.  18.) 

"  Q.  Why  is  the  Church  Holy? 

''A.  Because  she  is  sanctified  by  Jesus  Christ  through  his 
passion,  through  his  doctrine,  through  his  prayer, 
and    through    the    sacraments.      Christ  loved  the 
Chuj'ch,  and  gave  himself  for  it,  etc.  {liph.  v.  25-27.) 

"  Q.  How  is  the  Church  holy,  when  she  has  in  her  sinners? 
''A.  Men  who  sin,  but  purify  themselves  by  true  repentance, 
hinder  not  the  Church  from  being  holy ;  but  impenitent  sin- 
ners, either  by  the  visible  act  of  Church  authority,  or  by  the 
invisible  judgment  of  God,  are  cut  off  from  the  body  of  the 
Church  ;  and  so  she  is  in  respect  of  these  also  kept  holy.  Put 
azi'aj',  etc.  (i  Cor.  v.  13;  2  7)';//.  ii.  19.) 


PECULIAR    TRIVILEGES.  I99 

"  O.  Why  Is  the  Church  called  Catholic,  or,  which  is  the 
same  thing,  Universal  ? 

"  A.  Because  she  is  not  limited  to  any  place,  or  time,  or 
people,  but  contains  true  believers   of  all  places, 

.  ,  ,  Catholicity. 

times,  and  peoples. 

"  Q.  What  great  privilege  has  the  Catholic  Church  ? 

"  A.  She  alone  has  the  sublime  promises  that  the  gates  of 
hell  shall  not  prevail  against  Jier ;  that  the  Lord  shall  be  zvith 
Jicr,  even  to  the  end  of  the  zvorld ;  that  in  her  shall 

1  .  t        /  7  r   ^     1    •       r-i     •   ,    i>^  7  7  Indefectibility. 

abide  the  glory  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  throughout 
all  generations  for  ever;  and,  consequently,  that  she  shall  never 
apostatize  from  the  faith,  nor  sin  against  the  truth  of  the  faith, 
or  fall  into  error. 

'*  *  We  undoubtingly  confess,  as  sure  truth,  that  the  Catholic 
Church  cannot  sin,  or  err,  nor  utter  falsehood  in  place  of 
truth  ;  for  the  Holy  Ghost,  ever  workincf  throucrh    ^  ^  „., .,. 

'  .    .  ,  ^        Infallibility, 

his  faithful  ministers,  the  fathers  and  doctors  of 
the  Church,  preserves  her  from  all  error.'  {Missive  of  the  East- 
ern Patriarchs  on  the  Orthodox  Faith,  art.  xii.) 

'*  Q.  If  the  Catholic  Church  contains  all  true  believers  in  the 
world,  must  we  not  acknowledge  it  to  be  necessary  for  salva- 
tion that  every  believer  should  belong  to  her? 

''A.  Exactly  so.  Since  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  words  of  St. 
Paul,  is  the  Head  of  the   Church,  and   He  is  the 

f^.  r      f         ^  ^  •        r    ^^  i  i  ExclusiveneSS. 

Saviour  ot  the  body,  it  follows  that  to  have  part 

in  his  salvation  we  must  necessarily  be  members  of  his  body, 

that  is,  of  the  Catholic  Church.  {Ephes.  v.  23.) 

"  Q.  What  thoughts  and  remembrances  should  we  associate 
with  the  name  of  the  Eastern  Church  ? 

*'  A.  In  Paradise,  planted  in  the  East,  was  founded  the  first 
Church  of  our  parents  in  innocence ;  and  in  the  East,  after  the 
fall,  was  laid  a  new  foundation  of  the  Church  of  the  redeemed, 
in  the  promise  of  a  Saviour.     In  the  East,  in  the 
land  of  Judea,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  having  fin-    priviieir'es 
ished  the  work  of  our  salvation,  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  his  own  proper  Christian   Church;   from  thence   she 
spread  herself  over  the  whole  universe;   and  to  this  day  the 


200  THE    DOCTRIxNE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

Orthodox  Catholic  CEcumenical  faith,  confirmed  by  the  seven 
CEcumenical  Councils,  is  preserved  unchanged  in  its  original 
purity  in  the  ancient  churches  of  the  East,  and  in  such  as  agree 
with  them,  as  does,  by  God's  grace,  the  Church  of  Russia. 

"g.  Why  is  the  Church  called  Apostolic? 

''A.  Because  she  has  from  the  apostles,  without  break  or 

change,  both  her  doctrine  and  the  succession  of  the  gifts  of 

the  Holy  Ghost,  through  the  laying-  on  of  conse- 

Apostolicity.  ,/,  t,  ,^i 

crated  hands.  In  the  same  sense  the  Church  is 
called  also  Orthodox,  or  Rightly-believing.  Ye  are  no  more 
strangers  and  foreigners,  etc.  (Ephes.  ii.  19,  20.) 

"  Q.  What  ecclesiastical  institution  is  there  through  which 
the  succession  of  the  apostolical  ministry  is  preserved? 
''A.  The  Ecclesiastical  Hierarchy. 
Hierarchy.         "  Q'  Whence  originates  the   Hierarchy   of  the 

Orthodox  Christian  Church  ? 
"^.  From  Jesus  Christ  Himself,  and  from  the  descent  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  on  the  apostles ;  from  which  time  it  is  con- 
tinued in  unbroken  succession  through  the  laying  on  of  hands, 
in  the  sacrament  of  orders.  And  He  gave  some,  apostles  ;  and 
some,  propJiets,  etc.  {Ephes.  iv.  11.) 

"  Q.  What  hierarchical  authority  is  there  which  can  extend 
its  sphere  of  action  over  the  whole  Catholic  Church  ? 
"  A.  An  CEcumenical  Council. 
/-        1  "  Q-  Under  what  hierarchical  authority  are  the 

Councils.  '^  -^ 

chief  divisions  of  the  Catholic  Church  ? 

*M.  Under  the  Orthodox  Patriarchs,  and  the  most  Holy 
Synod. 

"  Q.  Under  what  ecclesiastical  authority  are  lesser  ortho- 
dox provinces  and  cities  ? 

"  A.  Under  Metropolitans,  Archbishops,  and  Bishops. 

"  Q.  What  rank  in  the  hierarchy  is  held  by  the  most  Holy 
Synod? 

"  A.  The  same  rank  with  the  most  Holy  Orthodox  Patriarchs. 

"  Q.  If  any  one  desire  to  fulfil  his  duty  of  obedience  to  the 
Church,  how  may  he  learn  what  she  requires  of  her  children  ? 

"  A.  This  may  be  learned   from  holy  Scripture,  from   the 


GENERAL    COUNCILS.  201 

canons  of  the  holy  Apostles,  the  holy  CEcumenical  and  Pro- 
vincial Councils,  and  the  holy  Fathers,  and  from  the  books  of 
ecclesiastical  rules  and  rubrics." 

The  Catechism  teaches  that  "orders  are  a  sacrament,  in 
which  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  the  laying  on  of  the  bishop's  hands, 
ordains  them  that  be  rightly  chosen  to  minister  sacraments, 
and  to  feed  the  flock  of  Christ ;  that  of  orders  there  are  three 
necessary  degrees  —  those  of  bishop,  priest^  and 
deacon  ;  "  that  the  difference  between  them  is  indi-      ^"^^^"^^^ 

of  Orders. 

cated  by  their  respective  functions  :  "  The  deacon 
serves  at  the  sacraments ;  the  priest  hallows  the  sacraments 
in  dependence  on  the  bishop;  the  bishop  not  only  hallows 
the  sacraments  himself,  but  has  power  also  to  impart  to 
others,  by  the  laying  on  of  his  hands,  the  gift  and  grace  to 
hallow  them."  (On  the  ninth  and  tenth  articles  of  the  Creed.) 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

Rise  of  the  Puritan  Controversy  —  Admonition  to  the  Parliament  — 
Cartvvright  and  Whitgift — Points  in  Controversy  —  Sir  F.  Knollys' 
Exceptions  to  Whitgifts  Statements  concerning  Episcopacy  —  Bellar- 
mine's  Statement  of  the  Roman  Doctrine  — The  Church  Militant  — 
Notes  of  the  Church  —  Papal  Infallibility  —  Four  Distinct  Opinions 
—  Bellarmine's  Exposition  —  Comparative  Authority  of  the  Pope  and 
A  General  Council. 

THE  year  1572  is  marked  by  the  rise  of  the  great  Puritan 
controversy.  The  discussion  was  opened  by  the  publication 
of  "An  Admonition  to  the  Parliament,  for  the  Reformation  of 
Church  Discipline,"  [No.  74 ;]  setting  forth  what  was 
Rise  of  the     ^^jj^j  u  ^y^^  Platform  of  a  Church,"  — the  manner 

Puritan  contro-      _     ,        ,  .    ,  ,      .  ,  i    i      • 

versy  iKj-y     of  elcctmg  ministers,  their  prerogatives  and  duties, 
and  arguments   to  prove  their  equality  in  govern- 
ment, the  alleged  corruptions  of  the  hierarchy,  and  a  petition 
to   Parliament   for  the   establishment  by  law  of  a  scriptural 
(presbyterial)  discipline. 

The  authorship  of  this  production,  famous  as  originating  a 

debate  which  has  extended  through  three  centuries,  down  to 

our   own   day,  is   to   be  ascribed   to   John  Field  and  Thomas 

Wilcocks,  the   prime  leaders  of  the   Puritan   movement  at  its 

first  rise.     Cartwright,  who  speedily  became  the 

Carlwright  and       ,  111  i  r    ,1         -n      •. 

Whitgift  acknowledged  coryphaeus  01  the  Puritan  cause, 
first  came  forth  in  the  same  year,  as  the  author 
of  A  Second  Admonition  to  the  Parliament,  [No.  75,]  reinforcing 
the  argument  of  the  first.  This  was  promptly  followed  hy  An 
ulnszver,  [No.  yG^  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  John  Whitgift,  written 
by  the  appointment  and  under  the  direct  supervision  of  the 
primate. 

Cartwright   rejoined   in   a  volume    entitled  A 
'^^^'        Reply  to  an  Anszcer  made  ofM.  Dr.  Whitgift,  etc., 

202 


POINTS    IN    DISPUTE.  2C3 

[No.  "jy^  by  T.  C.     The  year  following  appeared  Whitgift's 
very  able  and  elaborate  apology  in  behalf  of  the 
Anglican,  as  against  the  Genevan  discipline,  enti- 
tled The  Defence  of  the  Anszver  to  the  Adinonition,  etc.  [No.  79.] 

Prior  to  this,  and  probably  intended  as  an  introduction  to 
Whitgift's  bulky  folio,  was  the  publication  of  a  small  volume 
(anonymous)  entitled  A  Defence  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Regiment 
in  England,  defaced  by  T.  C.  in  his  Reply  against  Dr.  Whitgift, 
[No.  yZ  ;]  and,  following  close  upon  the  appearance  of  the  De- 
fence of  the  Anszver  to  the  Admonition,  came  out  a  volume  of  like 
dimensions,  without  the  author's  name,  but  known  to  be  from 
the  pen  of  Cartwright,  under  the  title  oi  An  Examination  of  Mr. 
D.  Whitgift's  Censure,  entitled  ''The  Defence;'  etc.  [No.  80.] 

A  year  later,  the  great  Puritan,  now  in  exile,  put  forth  The 
Second  Reply  of  Thomas  Cartivright  against  Master  Dr.  Whitgiffs 
Second  Anszcer  touching  the  Church  Discipline,  [No. 
81,]  a  quarto  volume,  printed  in  a  rude  black  letter, 
evidently  the  issue  of  a  foreign  press.  In  completion  of  the 
work,  the  Second  Part  of  the  Second  Reply  appeared  two  years 
after  the  first,  in  1577.  [No.  82.] 

The  leading  points  discussed  in  this  disputation  —  mem- 
orable as  the  first  in  the  long  series  of  the  Puritan  Discipline 
debates  —  were  the  following:  I.  The  standard  of  final  appeal. 
Accordincf  to  Whitcrift,  while  the  Scriptures  con- 

r  7-     •    r         1  r  1  I'^illtS  in 

stitute  the  perfect  Rule  of  Faith,  they  furnish  no      dispute, 
unchangeable    rule    for    the    government    of   the 
Church  ;  this  being  in  its  nature  changeable,  and  subject  to 
the  regulation  of  the  civil  authority.    Since  no  form  of  church 
polity  is  prescribed  in  the  New  Testament,  no  one  form  can 
claim  to  be  of  divine  rio;ht.    "  There  are  two  kinds 

1       ^^  ^        ^  ,  Standard 

of  government  in  the  Church,  he  writes,  "  the  one  of  judirment. 
invisible,  the  other  visible;  the  one  spiritual,  the 
other  external.  The  invisible  and  spiritual  government  of  the 
Church  is,  when  God,  by  his  Spirit,  gifts,  and  ministry  of  his 
word,  doth  govern  it,  by  ruling  in  the  hearts  and  consciences 
of  men,  and  directing  them  in  all  things  necessary  to  ever- 
lasting life ;  this  kind  of  government  indeed  is  necessary  to 


204         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

salvation,  and  it  is  in  the  Church  of  the  elect  only.  The 
visible  and  external  government  is  that  which  is  executed  by 
man,  and  consisteth  of  external  discipline,  and  visible  cere- 
monies practised  in  that  Church,  and  over  that  Church,  that 
containeth  in  it  both  good  and  evil,  which  is  usually  called 
the  visible  Church  of  Christ."  ..."  But  to  be  short,  I  confess 
that  in  a  Church  collected  together  in  one  place,  and  at  lib- 
erty, government  is  necessary  in  the  second  kind  of  necessity ; " 
—  that  is,  as  before  explained,  not  "  that  without  which  a  thing 
cannot  be,"  but  ''  tJiat  without  the  which  it  cannot  so  zuell  and 
conveniently  be  —  but  that  any  one  kind  of  government  is  so 
necessary  that  without  it  the  Church  cannot  be  saved,  or  that 
it  may  not  be  altered  into  some  other  kind  thought  to  be 
more  expedient,  I  utterly  deny;  and  the  reasons  that  move 
me  so  to  do  be  these : 

"The  first  is,  because  I  find  no  one  certain  and 

Reasons  why  .  •'  ^ 

the  Church  is  P^^'fict  kind  of  government  prescribed  or  commanded 
not  lied  to  one  in  the  Scriptiircs  to  the  Church  of  Christ;  which, 

kind  of  gov-  no  doubt,  should  have  been  done  if  it  had  been  a 
matter  necessary  unto  the  salvation  of  the  Church. 
"  Secondly,  because  the  essential  notes  of  the  Church  be  these 
only :  the  true  preaching  of  the  word  of  God,  and  the  right 
administration  of  the  sacraments;  for,  as  Master  Calvin  saith, 
...  *  Wheresoever  we  see  the  word  of  God  truly  preached, 
and  God  according  to  the  same  truly  worshipped,  and  the 
sacraments  without  superstition  administered,  there  we  may, 
without  all  controversy,  conclude  the  Church  of  God  to  be.' 
The  same  is  the  opinion  of  other  godly  and  learned  writers, 
and  the  judgment  of  the  Reformed  Churches,  as  appeareth 
from  their  confessions.  So  that,  notwithstanding  government, 
or  some  kind  of  government,  may  be  a  part  of  the  Church, 
touching  the  outward  form  and  perfection  of  it,  yet  is  it  not 
such  a  part  of  the  essence  and  being  but  that  it  may  be  the 
Church  of  Christ  without  this  or  that  kind  of  government ; 
and  therefore  the  'kind  of  government'  of  the  Church  is  not 
'  necessary  to  salvation.'  " 

Cartwright,  on  the  other  hand,  contended  that  the  Scriptures 


POINTS    IN    DISPUTE.  20$ 

constitute  the  exclusive  rule  alike  of  church-government  and 
doctrine ;  that  cvciything  pertaining  to  the  Church  must  be 
drawn  from  the  word  of  God. 

II.  As  to  the  election  of  ministers,  Whitgift  maintained  that 
the  power  of  election  and  appointment,  as  well  as  of  ordina- 
tion, vested  of  right  ^jure  lumiano^  i.  e.  as  by  law  in  England 
established,  not  jure  dlvino)   in    the    bishop:    "I 

,  ,  ,  ,  .  ,  Election  of 

condemn  no  churches  that  have  appomted  any  niinisters 
order  for  the  electing  of  their  pastors  which  they 
think  to  be  agreeable  to  their  state,  and  most  profitable  for 
them  ;  for,  therefore,  I  say  that  no  certain  manner  or  form  of 
electing  ministers  is  prescribed  in  the  Scripture,  because  every 
church  may  do  therein  as  it  shall  seem  to  be  most  expedient 
for  the  same.  ...  In  the  apostles'  time  there  were  divers 
manners  of  ordaining  and  electing  ministers.  For  sometime 
one  alone  did  choose  and  ordain,  sometime  many;  sometime 
ministers  only,  and  sometime  the  people  also."  (i.,  pp.  369, 
428,  sq) 

Cartwright  contended  for  the  exclusive  right,  jure  diidno^ 
of  the  congregation  to  elect,  according  to  primitive  usage. 

III.  In  regard  to  CJiurcli  officers,  while  Whitgift  advocated 
the  cause  of  the  hierarchy,  as  established  in  Eng- 

-        ,     ,  .  -  ,    .  ,        .  -        Cliurch 

land,  his  opponent  denounced  it  as  destitute  of       officers 
authority  in  Scripture  or  apostolic  precedent. 

IV.  Clerical  habits  — "  cap,  gown,  and  tippet "  —  stigmatized, 
in  the  Admonition,  as  popish  and  ahtichristian,  are 
defended  by  Whitgift,  as  appointed  by  the  magis- 
trate, for  order  and  decency. 

V.  The  churchman  contended  for  the  temporal  headship 
over  the  Church,  in  the  realm  of  England,  of  the 

prince ;    the    Puritan,   for   the    sole   headship    of  ;^^thority  of 

*  ^  the  magistrate. 

Christ. 

VI.  Confirmation,  branded  by  the  Puritan  as  popish,  is  de- 
fended by  Whitgift  —  distinguishing  the  Protest- 

^     c  ^        ^  •   ^  11  Confirmation. 

ant  trom  the  Komish  ceremony,  as  agreeable  to 
Scripture. 

VII.  Diocesan   Episcopacy   is   repudiated   by  Cartwright  as 


206         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

destitute  of  authority  in  Scripture  or  primitive  use :  "  In  the 
primitive  Church  there  was  one  bishop  in  every  congrega- 
tion ;  now  one  is  over  a  thousand  congregations.  Then 
every  bishop  had  a  distinct  church,  where  he  preached  and 
^  .  ministered  the  sacraments ;    now  he  hath    none. 

Episcopacy.  11. 

Then  he  ruled  one  church,  m  company  with  its 
elders ;  now  he  ruleth  a  thousand  by  himself,  shutting  out 
the  ministers  to  whom  the  government  belongs.  .  .  .  The 
bishops,  contrary  to  the  word  of  God,  have  got  into  their 
hands  both  the  pre-eminence  over  ministers  and  the  liberties 
of  the  Church  of  God." 

"  The  superiority  of  bishops,"  says  Whitgift,  "is  God's  own 
institution,  and  it  hath  a  necessary  use  in  the  Church  of  God." 
..."  And  although  Hierome  confess  that  by  Scripture  presby- 
ter and  episcopus  is  all  one,  (as  indeed  they  be  quoad  viiniste- 
rhiin)  yet  doth  he  acknowledge  a  superiority  of  the  bishop 
before  the  minister.  .  .  .  No  doubt  this  is  Jerome's  mind,  that 
a  bishop  in  degree  and  dignity  is  above  the  minister,  though 
he  be  one  and  the  selfsame  with  him  in  the  office  of  minister- 
ing the  word  and  sacraments ;  and  therefore  he  saith,  'Presby- 
ter continetur  hi  episcopo ; '  because  every  bishop  is  presbyter, 
but  every  presbyter  is  not  bishop."  (Vol.  ii,,  p.  254.) 

Whitgift's  utterances  on  this  point  gave  deep  offence  to  Sir 
Francis  Knollys,  of  the  Queen's  Privy  Council,  who  pro- 
nounced them  so  injurious  to  the  civil  government 

Sir  F.  Knollys  •  ,    .  1       •    1      r  ^.1  •       > 

^    — as  involving  a  denial  oi  the  sovereigns  supre- 
Whitgift.      niacy  over  the  Church  — that  the  author  of  them 
should  be  called  upon  to  make  an  open  recanta- 
tion.    The  views  of  this  influential  member  of  the  Government 
("  a  downright  Erastian,"  says  Collier)  are  fully  expressed  in 
a  letter  addressed  to  Sir  Francis  Walsingham  : 

"  Concerning  the  superiority  of  bishops,  I  must  needs  say 
unto  you,  that  my  lord  archbishop  (Whitgift)  and  the  rest 
take  a  dangerous  course  against  her  majesty's  supreme  gov- 
ernment, for  they  do  claim  a  superiority  of  government  to  be 
knit  to  their  bishoprics  j'l/re  divbio  directly.  Although  they 
do  grant  that  all  the  superiority  that  they  have  as  bishops. 


SIR    F.    KNOLLYS    VS.    WHITGIFT.  20/ 

that  tlicy  have  the  same  by  way  of  mediation  of  her  majesty, 
and  their  meaning  is,  that  because  her  majesty  doth  make 
them  bishops,  whereunto  their  superiority  is  knit,  (as  they 
suppose,)  therefore  they  do  grant  it  by  way  of  mediation, 
they  have  their  superiority  of  the  Queen's  majesty,  neverthe- 
less when  they  are  once  made  bishops  by  her  majesty,  then 
they  do  claim  their  said  superiority  to  be  due  unto  them  as 
knit  unto  their  bishoprics  directly  jure  divino,  how  weak  so- 
ever their  reasons  be  to  maintain  their  claimed  superiority. 
But  my  lord  treasurer  (Burghley)  is  partly  persuaded  that  the 
bishops  do  not  deny  that  their  superiority  is  holden  by  them 
as  a  grant  given  unto  them  directly  from  her  majesty,  and  that 
they  do  not  claim  their  said  superiority  directly  to  be  given 
unto  them  when  they  are  bishops  jure  divino,  that  is  to  sa>', 
directly  from  the  word  of  God.  But  I  must  needs  say,  that 
my  lord  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  (Whitgift,)  and  my  lord 
bishop  of  Winchester,  have  protested  and  plainly  avowed  unto 
me,  that  the  bishops  of  England  have  a  superiority  over  their 
inferior  brethren,  directly  J2ire  divbio,  and  prove  their  said 
claim  of  superiority  to  be  knit  to  their  bishoprics  directly  jure 
divino.  And  moreover,  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury's  book 
against  Cartwright  doth  manifestly  declare  the  said  arch- 
bishop's opinion  in  that  behalf  in  many  places  of  the  said 
book.  Nevertheless,  if  my  lord  treasurer  would,  in  her 
majesty's  name,  demand  of  the  said  bishops,  whether  they 
would  claim  any  such  superiority  <X\x^Q.\\y  jure  diidjio,  to  be  due 
unto  them  to  the  prejudice  of  her  majesty's  supreme  govern- 
ment, then  I  do  verily  think  that  they  durst  not  stand  to  their 
claimed  superiority,  unless  it  be  upon  hope  that  her  majesty 
would  yield  unto  them  their  claimed  superiority,  to  the  preju- 
dice of  her  supreme  government,  and  to  the  light  regard  of 
the  opening  the  highway  to  popery  ;  to  be  made  by  the  Jesuits 
to  follow  upon  the  same."  [Collier,  vol.  ix.,  p.  35  i.) 

In  the  lull  of  this  debate,  two  important  works  appeared  on 
the  Continent,  one  at  Geneva,  the  other  at  Rome ;  the  former 
from  the  pen  of  the  renowned  Du  Plessis  Morxav, 
entitled  Trait l^ dc  rEglisc,  etc.,  [No.  84,]  in  English, 


208         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

A  Notable  Treatise  of  the  Church,  1579  —  a  production  which  es- 
tablished the  reputation  of  its  author  as  an  able  defender  of  the 
Protestant  cause;  the  latter,  Bellarmini  Dispiita- 
tioncs   de   Controversiis   CJiristiance  Fidei  adversiis 
hiijiis  temporis  Hcereticos.  Vol.  i.  ii.,  1531-82.  [No.  85.]     Of  this 
great  work,  which  occupies  the  same  place  in  dogmatics  that 
Barojui  Annales  does  in  Church  history,  the  latter 
half  of  the  first  volume  treats  Of  the  Roman  Pontiff  : 
of  the  primacy  of  Peter ;  of  the  succession  of  the  Roman  Pon- 
tiff in  the  primacy  ;  of  Antichrist,  showing  that  he  has  nothing 
in  common  with  the  Pope;  of  the  power  of  the  Pope  in  the 
spiritual  causes ;  and  of  his  temporal  dominion. 

The  second  volume  is  devoted  to  the  discussion  of  the  great 
subject  of  the  Church,  under  four  general  heads:  I.  De  Con- 
ciliis  et  Ecclesid ;  under  this  {a)  of  the  nature,  causes,  power, 
etc.,  of  councils  ;  {fi)  of  the  nature,  properties,  and  notes  of  the 
true  Church.  II.  De  menibris  Ecclesice :  {a)  of  the  clergy,  and 
priesthood,  monks,  etc.;  {b)  of  the  laity,  and  particularly,  of 
the  civil  magistrate.  III.  De  Ecclcsia  quae  purgatur  in  locis 
snbterraneis :  of  Purgatory,  its  reality,  place,  duration,  pains, 
etc.  IV.  De  Ecclcsia  qnae  triiimpJiat  in  ccelis :  of  beatitude, 
and  the  worship  of  saints,  of  relics,  and  images,  basilicas, 
saints'  days,  and  other  things  by  which  the  memory  of  the 
saints  is  honored. 

The  Church  militant  is  defined  by  Bellarmine  as  "  a  body  of 

men  united  in  the  profession  of  the  same  Christian  faith,  and 

communion  of  the   same  sacraments,  under  the 

Definition  of  government   of  lawful    pastors,   and    particularly 

the  Church         ^      ,         -r^  t^         ./-/.     ^i     •     ,  i 

militant.  ^^  ^^"^^  Roman  Pontiff,  Christ  s  only  vicar  on 
earth."  {De  Ecclcs.  Milit.,  c.  2.) 

"  The  difference  between  our  definition  of  the  Church  and 
other  definitions  is  this,  that  all  others  make  internal  virtues 
requisite  to  constitute  membership  in  the  Church,  while  we 
maintain  that  in  order  to  constitute  a  part  of  the  true  Church, 
internal  virtue  is  not  requisite.  For  the  Church  is  a  company 
of  men  as  visible  and  palpable  as  the  Roman  people,"  etc.  .  .  . 
"  We  see  then  a  company  of  men  who  are  the  Church,  but 


FOUR    OPINIONS.  209 

that  this  company  is  itself  the  true  Church  of  Christ,  we  do 

not  see,  but  beheve." 

In  apparent  disregard  of  the  Tridcntine  precedent,  Bellar- 

mine   enumerates  fifteen  distinct   Notes  of  the  Church,  viz. : 

I.  The  name  of  the  Catholic  Church  and  of  Christians.    (Two 

names  of  different  import  are  made  to  constitute  a 

1  \  A       •       •  -TN  •  A  Notes  of 

smgle  note.)  2.  Antiquity.  3.  Duration.  4.  Am-  ^^^^  church, 
plitude,  or  multitude  and  variety  of  believers. 
5.  Succession  of  bishops  in  the  Roman  Church  from  the 
apostles  to  the  present.  6.  Agreement  in  doctrine  with  the 
ancient  Church.  7.  Union  of  the  members  among  themselves 
and  with  the  head.  8.  Sanctity  of  doctrine.  9.  Efficacy  of 
doctrine.  lO.  The  holiness  of  life  of  the  authors  of  our  re- 
ligion. II.  The  glory  of  miracles.  12.  The  light  of  prophecy. 
13.  Confession  of  adversaries.  14.  Unhappy  end  of  enemies. 
15.  Temporal  felicity  divinely  bestowed  on  those  who  have 
defended  the  Church. 

On  the  question  of  tJic  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  Bellarmine 
pronounces  thus  :  "  i.  All  agree  in  this,  that  the  Pope,  even, 
as  Pope,  and  with  his  assembly  of  counsellors,  or  with  a  gen- 
eral council,  may  err  in  particular  disputed  matters 


Papal 
Infallibility. 


of  fact  which  chiefly  depend  upon  human  testi- 
mony. 2.  All,  moreover,  are  agreed  that  the  Pope, 
as  a  private  doctor,  may  err,  even  in  universal  questions  of 
right,  as  well  of  faith  as  of  manners,  and  this  too  from  ig- 
norance. 3.  All  Catholics  are  agreed  {ci)  that  the  Pope  with 
a  general  council  cannot  err  in  framing  decrees  of  faith,  or 
general  precepts  of  morals.  4.  Catholics  are  agreed  (/;)  that 
the  Pope  alone,  or  with  his  particular  council,  determining 
any  doubtful  point,  whether  he  may  err,  or  not,  is  to  be 
obediently  deferred  to  by  all  the  faithful. 

"  There  are  four  distinct  opinions,  of  which  the  first  is,  that 
the  Pope,  even  as  Pope,  though  defining  a  point 
with  a  general  council,  may  be  a  heretic  himself,     opinions. 
and  teach  others  heresy,  and  that  this  as  a  matter 
of  fact  has  occurred.     This  opinion  is  heretical. 

"  The  second  opinion  is  that  the  Pope,  even  as  Pope,  may  be 
14 


210         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

a  heretic,  and  teach  heresy,  if  he  define  without  a  general 
council.  This  opinion  is  not  properly  heretical,  for  those  who 
hold  it  are  still  tolerated  by  the  Church.  It  appears  never- 
theless to  be  altogether  erroneous,  and  very  nearly  akin  to 
heresy  (Jucrcsi  prox'uiid)!'  This,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Gallican  Church,  as  it  is  that  of  Gratian  {Dist. 
xix.)  and  the  Parisian  doctors,  Gerson  and  his  associates. 

"The  third  opinion  is  that«the  Pope  cannot  in  any  way  be 
a  heretic,  nor  publicly  teach  heresy,  even  though  he  alone 
should  define  any  point.  This  opinion  of  Pighius  is  probable, 
though  not  certain. 

"The  fourth  opinion  is  that  the  Pope,  whether  he  can  be 
a  heretic  or  not,  cannot  by  any  means  determine  anything 
heretical,  to  be  believed  by  the  whole  Church.  This  is  the 
most  common  opinion,  as  it  is  the  most  certain,  and  that 
which  is  to  be  maintained.  (The  doctrine  of  Aquinas.) 

"These  different  views  are  not  irreconcilable,  for  those  who 
hold  them  all  equally  affirm  that  it  is  not  possible  that  the 
Pope  should  determine  any  point  rashly.  He  who  promised 
the  end,  (the  infallibility  of  the  Pope's  judgment,)  without 
doubt  promised  also  the  means. 

"  To  place  this  doctrine  in  a  clear  light,  we  lay  down  a  few 

propositions :  I.  The  Pope,  when  teaching  the  whole  Church 

in  matters  pertaining  to  faith,  cannot  err  by  any  possibility. 

The  promise  of  Christ  is,  *  I  have  prayed  for  thee, 

Bellarmine's      ,  ,       /-  •  i     /-  -i  i     ^t-i  i 

exposition  ^"^^  ^"X  \2AVi\  fail  not.  There  was  no  reason  why 
he  should  twice  pray  for  Peter's  perseverance. 
Something  special  was  obtained  for  Peter.  Mediately,  at 
least,  Christ  here  prayed  for  all  the  apostles,  that  is,  for  some 
gift  to  be  communicated  to  Peter  for  the  behoof  of  the  rest. 
The  gift  here  obtained  for  Peter  pertains  also  to  his  successors, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Church,  which  always  needs  some  one 
by  whom  it  may  be  confirmed,  and  whose  faith  cannot  fail. 
The  Lord  obtained  two  privileges  for  Peter:  first,  that  he 
should  never  lose  the  true  faith  ;  second,  that  as  Pontiff,  he 
should  never  teach  anything  against  the  faith ;  or,  that  in  his 
see  no  one  should  ever  be  found  who  would  teach  against  the 


BELLARMINE   S    EXPOSITION.  211 

true  faith.  The  former  privilege  has  not  perhaps  descended 
to  his  successors ;  the  latter  unquestionably  has  descended 
to  them.  It  were  not  inadmissible  to  apply  the  expression, 
'When  thou  art  converted'  —  to  be  interpreted  primarily  of  the 
conversion  of  Peter  —  to  others  whom  he  should  see  tempted 
and  wavering.  To  be  converted  from  sin  belongs  to  a  private 
person,  but  to  confirm  the  brethren  belongs  to  the  head  and 
prince  of  others, 

"  ?.Iatt.  xvi.,  Peter  with  his  successors  is  named  Petra,  and 
the  foundation  of  the  Church  which  shall  not  fail :  therefore, 
neither  Peter  himself  nor  his  successors  can  fail  {mere)  or  err. 
The  Pope  is  the  pastor  of  the  Church,  and  if  he  err,  the  whole 
Church  will  err;  nor  are  the  sheep  able  to  judge  whether  the 
shepherd  errs  or  not,  whether  the  Pontiff  rightly  teaches  or 
not. 

"The  same  point  is  proved  by  a  twofold  fact :  the  Roman 
See  alone  has  never  departed  from  the  faith  ;  and  the  Pope 
has  condemned  many  heresies,  v/ithout  a  general  council. 

"  Proposition  II.  Not  only  is  the  Roman  Pontiff  incapable 
of  error  in  the  faith,  but  the  particular  Roman  Church  also. 
This  is  to  be  understood  of  the  personal  error  of  all,  so  that 
the  whole  Church  should  become  apostate.  This  proposition 
is  most  true,  if  understood  of  the  Roman  Church  while  it 
continues  the  Apostolical  See.  But  if  it  be  so  understood  as 
if  the  Apostolic  See  could  never  be  transferred  from  Rome  to 
some  other  place,  it  is  a  pious  and  very  probable  opinion. 
It  is,  however,  by  no  means  so  certain  as  to  be  de  fide. 

"  Proposition  III.  The  supreme  pontiff  cannot  err  in  pre- 
cepts of  morals  which  are  enjoined  upon  the  whole  Church, 
nor  in  things  necessar>'  to  salvation,  or  in  those  which  are 
good  or  evil  per  se.  God  has  commanded  the  Church  to  follow 
the  Pope ;  otherwise  the  Church  could  not  be  truly  called  holy. 
If  the  Pope  should  err  by  enjoining  the  practice  of  vice  or 
prohibiting  virtue,  the  Church  would  be  bound  to  believe  that 
vice  is  good,  and  virtue  evil. 

"  Proposition  IV.  It  is  probable,  and  piously  to  be  believed, 
that  the  supreme  pontiff,  even  as  a  particular  person,  cannot 


212         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

be  a  heretic,  by  obstinately  believing  anything  against  the 
faith.  Hitherto  no  Pope  has  been  a  heretic  ;  certainly  of  none 
can  it  be  proved  that  he  was  a  heretic."  (Rashly  uttered  : 
three  Popes,  Agatho,  Leo  II.,  and  Hadrian  II.,  pronounced 
Honorius  a  heretic.  See  Pcre  Gratry  s  Letters  to  the  Abp.  of 
Malines)     [Dispiit.  De  Contr.,  vol.  i.,  p.  80 1,  ed.  1620.) 

On  the  question  of  tlie  comparative  authority  of  the  Pope  and 
a  general  council,  Bellarmine  pronounces  in  favor  of  the  Pope: 
"  On  this  question  there  arc  three  opinions  of  the  doctors  : 
First,  that  a  council  is  above  the  Pope.  Second,  that  the  Pope 
is  indeed  above  a  council,  but  that  he  can,  nev^er- 
Comparative  theless,  subject  himself  to  a  council,  and  then 
au   on  y  o       ought  to  acquiesce  in   its  judgment.     Th.Q  third 

Council.  opinion  is  that  commonly  received,  that  the  Pope 
is  so  far  above  a  council  that  he  cannot  even  sub- 
ject himself  to  its  judgment  as  a  matter  of  obligation.  The 
Roman  Pontiff  is  pastor  and  head,  not  only  of  all  particular 
churches,  but  also  of  the  whole  Universal  Church,  having 
been  immediately  constituted  such  by  Christ."  (In  another 
place,  however,  Bellarmine  writes :  "  That  the  Roman  Bishop, 
because  he  is  the  Roman  Bishop,  is  Peter's  successor,  origin- 
ated in  the  act  of  Peter  in  establishing  his  see  at  Rome,  and 
not  in  Christ's  first  institution.")     {De  Snntnto  Pontif  ii.  12.) 

"The  supreme  pontiff  is  simply  and  absolutely  above  the 
Universal  Church,  and  above  a  general  council,  so  that  he 
may  not  acknowledge  any  tribunal  (judicium)  on  earth  above 
himself     This  proposition  is  almost  de  fide. 

"The  supreme  pontiff  cannot  commit  to  a  council  or  to  any 
man  a  coactive  judicial  power  over  himself,  but  only  ^.judicinni 
discrctiinan!'  (Disputat.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  53.) 

To  Bellarmine,  a  Jesuit,  belongs  the  honorable  distinction, 
freely  accorded  to  him  by  his  Protestant  opponents,  of  stating 
the  positions  of  his  adversaries  with  fairness ;  at  the  same 
time  that  he  gives  candid  expression  to  the  Romish  doctrine, 
without  the  least  reserve,  or  equivocating  gloss ;  in  this  re- 
spect presenting  a  favorable  contrast  with  the  later  leading 
controversial   writers    of  the    Roman    communion,    such    as 


AUTHORITY    OF    THE    POPE    AND    COUNCIL.  21 3 

Bossuet,  Mcehler,  and  Wiseman.  It  is  from  BcUarminc,  and 
not  from  the  more  recent  advocates  of  Romanism,  that  we 
are  to  learn  the  real  doctrine  and  tendency  of  the  Romish 
system.  "  He  embellishes  nothing,  and  conceals  nothing ; 
nor  does  he  take  pains  to  give  prominence  to  the  points  of 
agreement  between  Romanism  and  Protestantism,  or  to  re- 
duce to  a  minimum  the  differences  between  them.  He  makes 
no  attempt  to  find  philosophical  grounds  for  the  Romish 
dogmas.  Bossuet's  delineation  is  that  of  his  own  form  of 
Romanism,  and  of  that  which  obtained  among  the  cultivated 
French  clergy  of  his  own  day.  So  also  Moehler'^  exposition 
is  that  of  the  Catholicism  of  Moehler  himself,  and  of  the 
Romanist  theologians  of  Germany  of  the  present  day,  inspired 
by  the  Protestant  scientific  spirit."  * 

Unquestionably  Bellarmine  still  remains  the  great  ex- 
pounder of  the  modern  Roman  system,  in  its  purity  and 
integrity. 

*  Thiersch,  in  Hertzog. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Views  of  the  Brownists  —  John  Raynolds:  Conference  with  Hart  — 
Argument  against  Peter's  Roman  Episcopate  —  Six  Conclusions  on 
Scripture  and  the  Church  —  Argument  in  Verse — The  Church  an 
Article  of  Faith  —  Bancroft's  Sermon  at  Paul's  Cross  —  Sir  F.  Knol- 
LYs'  Exceptions  —  Bancroft's  Answer  to  Exceptions  —  Raynolds'  Re- 
view of  the  Sermon. 

THE  year  1580  is  marked  by  the  rise  in  England  of  a  sect 
of  separatists  whose  extreme  views  in  reference  to  church 
discipline  provoked  a  long  and  heated  controversy.     Robert 
Brown,  from  whom  the  sect  received  its  name,  a  presbyter 
of  the  Church  of  England,  of  honorable  descent, 

The  Brownists,        ,  i-   ,       ,    •  o  •^-  r    1  •  i- 

kSo  published  m  1582  an  exposition  of  his  peculiar 
opinions,  in  A  Treatise  of  Reformation  without  Tar- 
rying for  any  Man,  etc.,  [No.  89,]  the  main  object  of  which 
was  to  promote  separation  from  the  Church  of  England,  and 
the  formation  of  independent  societies,  wholly  free  from  the 
authority  of  the  civil  magistrate.  Among  the  numerous  pub- 
lications, on  either  side,  to  which  this  disputation  gave  rise, 
special  mention  may  be  made  of  A  Brief  Discovery  of  the 
False  Churches,  wherein  the  rights  of  the  Christian  Church  are 
further  asserted  by  the  Holy  Scripture,  (1590,)  [No.  121,]  by 
Henry  Barrowes,  to  whom  the  Brownists  are  indebted  for 
the  denomination  of  Barrowists. 

The  peculiar  views   of  the   Brownists  are   set  forth   in   an 
authentic  form  in  a  publication  put  forth  in  the  year  1599,  con- 
taining a  recapitulation  of  their  objections  against  the  Church 
of  England,  under   the   heading,  "  Anti-Christian  Abomina- 
tions  yet   retained    in    England."     The    charges 

Peculiar        ,  /  ,  ,  ^^^     ^        .  ,  '^ 

views.       ^^^^  brought  together,  fifty-five  in  number,  em- 
brace   all   the    exceptions    that    have    ever   been 
taken,  it  would  seem,  to  the  Anglican  Church,  by  its  non- 
214 


RAYNOLDS      CONFERENCE    WITH     HART.  215 

Romanist  assailants.  The  list  is  given  in  full  in  the  Biogra- 
phia  Britannica,  vol.  ii.,  p.  619.  The  leading  principle  of  this 
body  of  separatists  is,  "  That  every  particular  church,  with  its 
pastor,  stands  immediately  under  Christ,  the  Arch-Pastor, 
without  any  other  ecclesiastical  power  intervening,  whether 
it  be  of  prelates,  of  synods,  or  any  other  invented  by  man." 
In  assuming  this  position,  these  sectaries  placed  themselves 
in  antagonism,  not  only  with  the  upholders  of  Episcopacy, 
but  also  with  the  great  body  of  the  non-conformists,  who 
firmly  held  to  the  principle  of  synodical  authority.  In  the 
Brownist  system,  each  congregation  is  independent  of  every 
other;  hence  the  origin  of  the  terms  Congregationalism  and 
Independentism.  Equally  opposed  to  Episcopacy  and  Pres- 
bytery, they  maintained  that  "the  Church  ought  not  to  be 
governed  by  popish  canons,  courts,  classes,  customs,  or  any 
human  inventions,  but  by  the  laws  and  rules  which  Christ  has 
appointed  in  the  New  Testament;  that  a  particular  form  of 
church  government  is  prescribed  in  the  word  of  God ;  that 
no  other  form  ought  to  be  tolerated ;  and  that  the  Church  of 
God  ought  to  be  governed  by  elders." 

Eminently  entitled  to  a  place  in  this  record  is  the  name  of 
Dr.  John  Raynolds,  president  of  C.  C.  Coll.,  Oxford,  the 
fellow-collegian,  "  contemporary,  and  friend,"  of  Hooker. 
Few  theologians  of  any  age  have  exerted  a  more  decided  influ- 
ence upon  the  thinkers  of  their    own  time,  and 

,  ,  ,  John  Raynolds, 

contemporary  writers   seem  to  have  thought  no    ir4q_i6o7 
praise  too  high  for  Raynolds,  whether  as  a  man, 
a  scholar,  or  a  divine.     Those  who  knew  him.  best  speak  of 
him  as  "the  very  treasury  of  erudition,  a  living  library,  and  a 
third  university,  of  a  memory  and  reading  near  to  a  miracle, 
and  for  probity,  piety,  and  sanctity  of  life  so  eminent  and  con- 
spicuous, that,  as  Nazianzen  said  of  Athanasius,  it  might  be 
said  of  him,  to  name  Raynolds  is  to  commend  virtue  itself" 
His  claim  to  our  attention  at  present  rests  upon 
his  very  able  conduct  of  a  debate  with  a  Romanist,    ^j^j^  jj^^.^. 
mainly  on  the  subject  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope. 
Of  this  a  faithful   report  is   contained   in  a  volume   entitled 


2l6         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

The  Sum  of  a  Conference  between  John  Raynolds  and  John  Hart, 
touching  the  Head  and  the  Faith  of  the  Church.  [No.  9 1 .] 

As  a  specimen  of  this  great  man's  manner  of  argumenta- 
tion, take  the  following,  (he  is  proving  that  St.  Peter  was  not 
Bishop  of  Rome) :  "  Generally,  a  bishop  is  an  overseer.     In 
which  signification  it  reacheth  to  all  who  are  put  in  trust  with 
oversight  and  charge  of  anything ;  as  Eleazar  is 
Peter's       called    bishop   of  the   tabernacle,   {Num.   iv.    16,) 

Episcopate  at  ,    ^,     .         ,        -r^.  ,  r  1  -n.        • 

Rome.  ^'^^  Christ  the  Bishop  of  our  souls.  But  m  our 
common  use  of  speech  it  noteth  him  to  whom  the 
oversight  and  charge  of  a  particular  church  is  committed ; 
such  as  were  the  bishops  of  Ephesus,  of  Philippi,  and  they 
whom  Christ  calleth  the  angels  of  the  churches.  Now  Peter 
was  not  bishop  after  this  latter  sort;  for  he  was  an  apostle, 
and  the  apostles  were  sent  to  preach  to  all  the  world.  Where- 
fore when  the  Fathers  said  he  was  a  bishop,  either  they 
meant  it  in  the  former  sense,  or  ought  to  have  meant  it.  .  .  . 
Irenaeus  nameth  Linus  the  first  bishop  of  Rome  ;  Cletus  the 
second,  etc.  Eusebius  nameth  Euodius  the  first  bishop  of 
Antioch  ;  Ignatius  the  second.  Whereby  they  declare  that  in 
their  judgment,  although  Peter  preached  at  Antioch  and  Rome 
both,  yet  he  was  neither  bishop  of  Antioch  nor  Rome,  as 
usually  that  name  is  taken.  Yea,  they  distinguish  the  bishops 
and  the  apostles  therein  purposely.  For  Irenaeus  saith  that 
the  two  apostles,  namely  Peter  and  Paul,  when  they  had 
founded  and  taught  the  Roman  Church,  committed  the 
bishoply  charge  thereof  to  Linus.  And  he  repeateth  often  in 
reckoning  up  the  bishops,  as  doth  Eusebius  also,  that  they 
were  such  and  such  in  order,  and  number,/;-^;;/  the  apostles. 
And  Ruffinus  writeth  that  Linus  and  Cletus  were  bishops 
while  Peter  lived.  .  .  .  Which  is  confirmed  by  Epiphanius,  who, 
though  he  say  that  Peter  and  Paul  were  both  apostles  and 
bishops  in  Rome ;  yet  he  saith  withal,  that  there  were  other 
bishops  of  Rome  while  they  lived ;  because  that  the  apostles 
went  often  into  other  countries  to  preach  Christ,  and  the 
city  of  Rome  might  not  be  without  a  bishop.  As  if  he  should 
have  said,  a  bishop's  duty  doth  bind  him  to  attend  the  church 


RAYNOLDS      SIX    CONCLUSIONS.  21/ 

whereof  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  made  him  overseer.  Now, 
though  the  apostles  Peter  and  Paul  did  perform  that  duty  to 
the  Church  of  Rome,  while  they  abode  there,  yet  because  it 
was  the  charge  of  their  apostleship  to  preach  to  others  also, 
therefore  they  went  thence  to  other  coasts  and  nations,  and 
left  the  Roman  charge  to  the  bishops  of  Rome.  And  so  you 
may  learn  by  the  Fathers  themselves  that  when  they  termed 
any  apostle  a  bishop  of  this  or  that  city,  as  namely  St.  Peter 
of  Antioch  or  Rome;  they 'meant  it  in  a  general  sort  and 
signification ;  because  he  did  attend  that  church  for  a  time ; 
and  supplied  that  room  in  preaching  of  the  gospel  which 
bishops  did  after.  But  as  the  name  of  bishop  is  commonly 
taken  for  the  overseer  of  a  particular  church,  and  pastor  of  a 
several  flock,  so  Peter  was  not  bishop  of  any  one  city,  and 
therefore  not  of  Rome. 

"  The  bishops  of  Rome  did  succeed  Peter  (then)  as  bishops 
an  apostle;  and  they  did  succeed  him  in  Rome,  as  other  bish- 
ops did  in  other  cities.  Wherefore  if  the  Bishop  of  Rome, 
by  this  succession,  have  right  to  the  supremacy,  what  hath 
the  Bishop  of  Antioch  ?  For  he  succeeded  Peter  too."  (Pp. 
218,  219.) 

Four  years  before  the  publication  of  the  Sinn  of  the  Confer- 
ence, Raynolds  gave  to  the  world  a  smaller  work,  entitled.  Six 
Conclusions  tonching  the  Holy  Scripture  and  Church,  "  Proposed, 
expounded,  and  defended   in   public  disputations 
at  Oxford:   i.  The  Holy  Scripture    teacheth    the   ^  ^'^    .  ^ 
Church  all  things  necessary  to  salvation.     2.  The 
militant   Church  may  err,  both  in  manners  and  in  doctrine. 
3.  The  authority  of  the  Holy  Scripture   is   greater  than  the 
authority  of  the  Church.     4.  The   holy  Catholic 
Church  which  we  believe  is  the  whole  company 
of  God's  elect  and  chosen.     5.  The  Church  of  Rome  is  not 
the  Catholic  Church,  nor  a  sound   member  of  the  Catholic 
Church.    6.  The  reformed  churches  in  England,  Scotland,  and 
France,  Germany,  and   other  kingdoms    and   commonweals, 
have  severed  themselves  lawfully  from  the  Church  of  Rome." 

These  theses  contain  a  clear  exposition,  in  condensed  form. 


2l8         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

of  this  great  master's  views    concerning  the  doctrine  of  the 

Church,  polemically  stated  as  against  the  Roman- 
Argument  in    .  ^  ,     ,       .     .  -       ,  . 

verse        ^^^^*      ^^  each  thesis  is  prenxed  its   own  argument 

in  verse  ;  to  the  fourth  the  following  : 

"He  who  the  sea,  the  earth,  the  skies  made  by  his  word  of  nought, 
Who  by  eternal  power  doth  guide  and  rule  all  things  he  wrought. 
Did  choose  from  out  the  sons  of  men  before  the  world  was  pight, 
Such  as  with  blessed  angels  aye  should  joy  his  blissful  sight. 
The  Jews  are  not  the  only  men  that  make  this  holy  band. 
But  they  are  soldiers  chosen  out  of  every  tongue  and  land : 
Where  on  the  South  the  mighty  prince  of  Abissines  doth  reign, 
Where  on  the  North  the  coasts  do  lie  that  look  to  Charles's  wain ; 
Where  Phoebus  with  his  glistering  beams  doth  raise  the  dawning  light, 
And  sinking  in  the  Western  seas  doth  bring  the  darksome  night. 
The  flesh  cannot  by  nature's  light  such  hidden  truths  pursue ; 
But  Christian  faith  by  light  of  grace  this  Catholic  Church  doth  view." 

"The   holy  Catholic    Church,  whereof  we  profess    in   our 

Creed  that  we  believe  it,  is  the  whole  company  of  God's  elect 

and  chosen.     Which  is  termed  a  Church,  that  is,  a  company  of 

men,  and  an  assembly  of  people  called  together  : 

d  fi  d  ^^^h'y  because  God  hath  chosen  this  company,  and 
sanctified  it  to  himself:  Catholic,  for  that  it  con- 
sisteth  not  of  one  nation,  but  of  all,  spread  through  the  whole 
world.  For  God,  to  the  intent  that  he  might  impart  the 
riches  of  his  glorious  grace  unto  mankind,  did  choose,  from 
everlasting,  a  certain  number  of  men,  as  a  peculiar  people, 
who  should  possess  with  him  the  kingdom  of  heaven  prepared 
for  them  from  the  foundations  of  the  world.  And  although 
this  people  be  sundered  by  the  distance  of  places  and  times, 
for  the  several  persons  and  members  thereof,  yet  hath  he 
joined  and  knit  them  all  together  by  the  bond  of  his  Holy 
Spirit,  into  the  fellowship  of  one  body,  and  a  civil,  or  rather 
a  spiritual  communion,  as  it  were  into  one  city,  .  .  the  Jicav- 
enly,  new  and  holy  Jerusalem,  the  city  of  the  living  God  : 
the  King  is  God  Almighty,  .  .  the  laws  are  God's  word;  .  . 
the  citizens  are  the  saints,  even  all  and  singular  holy  men. 
In  this  Church  the  faithful  all  are  comprehended  that  either 
be,  or  have  been,  or  shall  be  to  the  end,  from  the  beginning 


AN    ARTICLE    OF    FAITH.  2I9 

of  the  world.     Which  is  termed  in  Scripture  the  CJiurcJi  of  the 

firstborn  who  are  written  in  heaven;  which  God  did  predestinate 

to  be  adopted  to  himself,  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  his 

will. 

"  You   marvel,  perhaps,  why  I  propose  this  article   of  the 

Christian  faith  to  be  discussed  by  disputation  ;  as  though  either 

any  man  stood  in  doubt  of  it,  or  things  not  doubtful  were 

to  be  handled  as  doubtful.     But  if  you  consider  that  the  true 

mcaninc:  thereof  which  I  have  opened,  ...  is  con- 

,1  11,  ,1  r      An  article 

demned  and  accursed  by  the  standard-bearers  oi       of  faith 

the  Church  of  Rome,  you  will  cease  to  marvel.  For 
in  the  Council  of  Constance,  in  which  they  condemned  John 
Huss  for  a  heretic,  they  condemned  these  two  sayings  as 
heretical,  to  be  burned  with  him  : — that  there  is  one  holy,  Uni- 
versal Church,  which  is  the  whole  company  of  them  that  are 
predestinate ;  and,  that  the  Church  as  it  is  taken  in  this  sense, 
for  the  company  of  them  that  are  predestinate,  is  the  article  of 
our  faith.  Which  sayings  of  his  to  be  counted  ungodly,  it  seemed 
strange  to  me  ;  and  so  much  the  more,  because  I  perceived 
that  the  Fathers  .  .  .  did  use  the  same  square  to  measure  out 
the  Catholic  Church  by.  For  Clemens  Alexandrinus  doth 
expressly  call  it  the  company  of  the  elect,  into  zvliich  are  gath- 
ered the  faithful  and  just,  whom  God  did  predestinate  before  the 
creation  of  the  world.  [Strom.,  lib.  vii.)  Likewise,  Ambrose, 
having  said  that  the  honor  of  God  the  Father  is  in  CJirist  and  in 
the  Church,  defincth  the  Church  to  be  a  people  which  God  hath 
vouchsafed  to  adopt  to  himself  [Ep.  ad  Eph.)  Furthermore, 
Gregory  the  Bishop  of  Rome  affirmeth  that  all  the  elect  are 
contained  zvithin  the  compass  and  circuit  of  the  Church,  all  the 
reprobate  are  without.  [Moral,  in  Job.  1.  28,  9.)  And  Bernard 
declares  the  Church  to  be  the  company  of  all  the  elect,  ivhich 
company  zvas  pirdestinated  before  the  world  began.  [In  Cant. 
Serm.  78.)  As  for  Austin,  ...  he  neither  acknowledgeth  any 
city  of  God  but  this  elect  Church  ;  .  .  .  saying  that  all  the  holy 
and  sanctified  men  luhich  are,  zvhich  have  becJt,  zvhich  shall  be, 
are  citizens  of  this  heavenly  Jerusalem!'  [De  rudib.  cat.  20.) 
"  But  the  prelates  of  the  Romish  Church  wrest  the  Holy  Catk- 


220         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

olic  CJuirch  of  the  Creed  from  the  right  meaning:  they  apply  it, 
not  to  the  Catholic  Church,  but  to  the  militant ;  nor  to  that  as 
it  is  chosen,  but  as  it  is  visible,  mingled  with  hypocrites  and 
ungodly  persons.  The  cause  why  they  do  so,  is,  that  all 
Christians,  by  reason  they  believe  the  Holy  Catholic  Church, 
may  be  induced  to  think  that  the  visible  Church  must  be  held 
for  Catholic,  and  a  visible  monarchy  must  be  in  the  visible 
Church,  and  the  Pope  is  prince  of  the  visible  monarchy,  and 
all  Christians  must  be  subject  to  him  as  prince.  For  that  this  be 
the  mark  whereat  the  Popes  shoot,  is  as  clear  as  the  light  by 
the  very  Extravagmits,  as  they  are  termed,  of  the  canon  law, 
in  that  royal  decree  of  Boniface  the  Eighth,  beginning  with 
these  words  :  One  Holy  Catholic  Church,  where,  from  one  Cath- 
olic Church,  without  the  which  there  is  no  salvation,  he 
creepeth  up  to  the  head  of  the  Church,  even  Jesus  Christ,  and 
from  Christ  the  head  he  slippeth  down  by  stealth  unto  Christ's 
Vicar,  one  and  the  same  head  (as  he  saith)  with  Christ,  even 
the  Pope  of  Rome :  whom  yet  to  be  head  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  not  himself  would  say,  (unless  perhaps  in  a  dream,) 
for  then  he  should  be  head  of  the  triumphant  Church,  which 
is  a  part  of  the  Catholic;  but  he  would  be  head  of  the  visible 
Church,  which  he  nameth  Catholic,  thereby  the  more  easily  to 
deceive  the  simple,  who  being  astonied  and  snared  with  that 
name,  the  fowler  shutteth  up  the  net,  and  concludeth  that 
every  earthly  creature,  if  he  will  be  saved,  must  of  necessity  be 
subject  to  the  Pope!'  {Id.,  p.  593-643.) 

The  year  1588  is  rendered  noteworthy  in  the  history  of  this 
controversy  by  the  publication  of  a  tract  bearing  the  title  of 
.  A  Brief  Discovery  of  the  Untniths  and  Slanders  against  the  true 

Government  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  in  a  Sermo?i. 

[No.  99.]     This  sermon,  preached  at  Paul's  Cross, 
TaurTcro^ss    January   12,    1588,*  by  Dr.  Richard   Bancroft, 
1588.        chaplain    to     Archbishop    Whitgift,    contains    a 

labored  delineation  of  Puritanism,  from  the  point 
of  view  of  one  of  its  bitterest  opponents,  with  the  view  of 

*  The  authority  for  this  date  is  Strype,  Life  of  Whitgift,  p.  272,    See  Neal, 
Hist.  Puritans ,  i.  186. 


Bancroft's 


SIR    F.    KNOLLYS      EXCEPTIONS.  221 

showing  its  tendency  to  subvert  the  monarchy  as  well  as  the 
hierarchy.  It  is  customary  to  speak  of  this  discourse  as  the 
first  public  expression,  on  the  part  of  an  Anglican  divine,  oT 
the  doctrine  of  Episcopacy  by  divine  right ;  plainly  a  misap- 
prehension, in  whatever  sense  the  expression  divine  right  be 
understood.  If  by  the  expression  "  Episcopacy  by  divine 
rifxht"  be  meant  such  a  divine  institution  of  a  threefold  order 
in  the  ministry  as  renders  it,  regularly  derived,  by  tactual 
succession,  from  the  apostles,  indispensably  necessary  to  the 
validity  of  the  Christian  ministry,  or  to  the  very  being  of  a 
Church  —  this,  certainly,  is  not  found  in  the  printed  sermon. 
If  the  expression,  by  divine  right,  again,  be  taken  to  mean, 
simply,  divine  appointment,  whether  immediate,  by  Christ 
Himself,  or  mediate,  through  the  apostles  —  this,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  already  been  asserted  by  Whitgift. 

Sir  Francis  KnoUys,  who  heard  the  sermon  delivered,  took 
the  same  exception  to  its  teaching  that  he  had  taken,  fifteen 
years  before,  to  that  of  Whitgift  on  the  same  point,  and  upon 
the  same  ground,  viz.,  its  incompatibility  with  the 
repeal   prerogative ;   in  other  words,  its   tendency       ^^'"  ^' 

/  11  IX  1  1  1      •        •      1         .1        •/        Knollys' 

(as  alleged)  to  render  the  ecclesiastical  authority  ^^^^  ^.^^^ 
independent  of,  cr  paramount  to,  the  civil  power. 
"  I  do  not  deny,"  says  he,  "  that  bishops  may  have  lordly  au- 
thority and  dignity,  provided  they  claim  it  not  from  a  higher 
authority  than  her  majesty's  grant.  If  the  bishops  are  not 
under  governors  to  her  majesty  of  the  clergy,  but  superior 
governors  over  their  brethren,  by  God's  ordinance,  (i.  e.  jure 
divi?io)  it  will  then  follow  that  her  majesty  is  not  supreme 
governor  over  her  clergy."  This  argument  he  produced  in 
syllogistic  form  :  "  Whosoever  doth  maintain  that  any  subject 
of  this  realm  hath  superiority  over  the  persons  of  the  clergy, 
otherwise  than  from  and  by  her  majesty's  authority,  he  doth 
injury  to  her  majesty's  supremacy.  The  preacher  upon  Sun- 
day, the  I2th  of  January,  1588,  maintained  that  the  bishops 
of  this  realm  had  superiority  over  the  inferior  clergy,  other- 
wise than  by  and  from  her  majesty's  authority,  namely,  jure 
divino.     Ergo,  the  preacher  therein  did  injury  to  her  majesty's 


222         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

supremacy;  unless  he  can  better  expound  this  saying  than  I 

can  imagine." 

Bancroft's  answer,  too  long  for  quotation,  is  in  substance  to 

this  effect :  that  the  argument  is  no  better  than  a  sophism, 

inasmuch  as  the  prince's  authority  may,  and  very  often  does, 
confirm  and  corroborate  that  which  is  instituted 
primarily  by  the  law  of  God.    He  moreover  briskly 

answer.         r  j      j  ^  ^  j 

retorts  upon  his  adversaries,  the  presbyterian  dis- 
ciplinarians, their  own  argument  —  assuming  it  to  be  theirs: 
"  their  arguments  return  on  themselves  far  more  dangerously 
than  any  way  upon  me ;  I  pleading  jus  divinuvi  whereto  her 
majesty's  laws  concur;  they  also  pleading  jus  divinuni,  but 
resisting  also  her  majesty's  laws,  as  contrary  to  the  laws  of 
God." 

These  exceptions,  it  would  appear,  were  taken  to  the  sermon 
as  delivered,  and  not  yet  published ;  for  the  preacher  says  in 
his  reply  :  "  For  my  sermon,  thanks  be  to  God,  it  is  fortJicoming, 
when  it  shall  be  called  for.  In  the  mean  season,  I  put  myself 
to  the  testimony  of  all  the  honorable,  worshipful,  and  other 
sincere  hearers  and  noters  of  the  same." 

Not  relying  wholly,  it  would  seem,  on  his  own  judgment, 
Knollys  wrote  to  Dr.  Raynolds,.  of  Oxford,  the  oracle  in 
divinity  of  his  day,  for  his  opinion  of  the  doctrine  of  Bancroft's 
sermon,  on  the  point  in  question,  viz.,  that  "the  superiority 
of  bishops  over  the  clergy  is  God's  ordinance;"  stated,  not 
indeed,  **  in  express  words,  yet  by  necessary  consequence  ;  " 
"  and  affirming  their  opinion  to  be  heresy  who  impugned 
their  superiority." 

Dr.  Raynolds'  letter,  written  in  answer,  [No.  lOO,]  has  been 
preserved  as  a  document  of  weight  in  this  controversy,  and 
as  such  I  here  reproduce  it :  "  Though  Epiphanius  says  that 
Acrius's  assertion  (that  there  is  no  difference  be- 
leview  tween  a  priest  and  a  bishop)  is  full  of  folly,  he 
does  not  disprove  his  reasons  from  Scripture ; 
nay,  his  arguments  are  so  weak,  that  even  Bellarmine  con- 
fesses they  are  not  agreeable  to  the  text.  As  for  the  general 
consent  of  the  Church,  which,  the  doctor  says,  condemned 


RAYNOLDS      REVIEW.  223 

Aerius'  opinion  for  heresy,  what  proof  does  he  bring  for  it? 
It  appears,  he  says,  in  Epiphanius ;  but  I  say  it  does  not ;  and 
the  contrary  appears  by  St.  Jerome,  and  sundry  others  who 
lived  about  the  same  time.  I  grant  that  St.  Austin,  in  his 
book  of  heresies,  ascribes  this  to  Aerius  for  one ;  that  he  said 
there  ought  to  be  no  difference  between  a  priest  and  a  bishop, 
because  this  were  to  condemn  the  Church's  order,  and  to 
make  a  schism  therein.  But  it  is  quite  a  different  thing  to  say 
that,  by  the  zvord  of  God,  there  is  a  difference  between  tlicm,  and 
to  say  that  it  is  by  the  order  and  custom  of  the  Chnrch  ;  which 
is  all  that  St.  Austin  maintains.  When  Harding,  the  Papist, 
alleged  these  very  witnesses  to  prove  the  opinion  of  bishops 
and  priests  being  of  the  same  order  to  be  heresy,  our  learned 
Bishop  Jewel  cited  to  the  contrary  Chrysostom,  Jerome,  Am- 
brose, and  St.  Austin  himself,  and  concluded  his  answer  with 
these  words  :  '  All  these,  and  other  more  holy  fathers,  together 
with  the  apostle  Paul,  for  thus  saying,  by  Harding's  advice, 
must  be  held  for  heretics.  Michael  Medina,  a  man  of  great 
account  in  the  Council  of  Trent,  adds  to  the  forementioned 
testimonies,  Theodorus,  Primarius,  Sedulius,  Theophylact,  with 
whom  agree  CEcumenius,  the  Greek  scholiast,  Anselm,  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  Gregory,  and  Gratian ;  and  after  them, 
how  many?  —  it  being  once  enrolled  in  the  canon  law  for 
Catholic  doctrine,  and  thereupon  taught  by  learned  men.' 

"  Besides,  all  that  have  labored  in  reforming  the  Church  for 
five  hundred  years  have  taught  that  all  pastors,  be  they  enti- 
tled bishops  or  priests,  have  equal  authority  and  power  by 
God's  word :  as  first  the  Waldenses,  next  Marsilius  Patavinus, 
then  Wycliffe  and  his  scholars,  afterwards  Huss  and  the  Huss- 
ites ;  and,  last  of  all,  Luther,  Calvin,  Brentius,  Bullinger,  and 
Musculus.  Among  ourselves  we  have  bishops,  the  Queen's 
Professors  of  Divinity  in  our  Universities,  (Drs.  Humphreys 
and  White,)  and  other  learned  men,  consenting  herein,  as 
Bradford,  Lambert,  Jewel,  Pilkington,  Humphreys,  Fulke,  etc. 
But  what  do  I  speak  of  particular  persons?  It  is  the  com- 
mon judgment  of  the  reformed  churches  of  Helvetia,  Savoy, 
France,  Scotland,  Germany,  Hungary,  Poland,  the  Low  Coun- 


224         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

tries,  and  our  own.  I  hope  Dr.  Bancroft  will  not  say  that  all 
these  have  approved  that  for  sound  doctrine  which  was  con- 
demned by  the  general  consent  of  the  whole  Church  for 
heresy  in  a  most  flourishing  time ;  I  hope  he  will  acknowl- 
edge that  he  was  overseen  when  he  avouched  the  superiority 
which  bishops  have  among  us  over  the  clergy  to  be  by  God's 
own  ordinance. 

"As  for  the  doctor's  saying  that  St.  Jerome  and  Calvin, 
from  him,  confessed  that  bishops  have  had  the  said  superi- 
ority ever  since  the  time  of  St.  Mark  the  Evangelist,  I  think 
him  mistaken,  because  neither  Jerome  says  it,  nor  does  Cal- 
vin seem  to  confess  it  on  his  report;  for  bishops  among  us 
may  do  sundry  other  things,  besides  ordaining  and  laying  on 
of  hands,  which  inferior  ministers  or  priests  may  not ;  where- 
as St.  Jerome  says,  *  What  does  a  bishop,  except  ordination, 
which  a  priest  does  not?' — meaning,  that  in  his  time  bishops 
had  only  that  power  above  priests ;  which  Chrysostom  also 
witnesses  in  Hom.  xi.,  on  i  Tim.  Nor  had  they  this  privilege 
alone  in  all  places,  for  in  the  council  of  Carthage  it  is  said 
that  the  priests  laid  their  hands,  together  with  the  bishops', 
on  those  who  were  ordained.  And  St.  Jerome  having  proved 
by  Scripture,  that  in  the  apostles'  time  bishops  and  priests 
were  all  one,  yet  granted  that  afterwards  bishops  had  that 
peculiar  to  themselves  somewhere ;  so  that  St.  Jerome  does 
not  say,  concerning  the  superiority  in  question,  that  bishops 
have  had  it  ever  since  St.  Mark's  time. 

"Nor  does  Calvin  confess  it;  he  says  that  in  old  time  min- 
isters chose  out  one  of  their  company  in  every  city,  to  whom 
they  give  the  title  of  bishop  ;  yet  the  bishop  was  not  above 
them  in  honor  and  dignity,  but  as  consuls  in  the  senate  pro- 
pose matters,  ask  their  opinions,  direct  others  by  giving  ad- 
vice, by  admonishing,  by  exhorting,  and  so  guide  the  whole 
action,  and  by  their  authority  see  that  performed  which  was 
agreed  on  by  common  consent,  the  same  charge  had  the 
bishop  in  the  assembly  of  ministers :  and  having  showed 
from  St.  Jerome  that  this  was  brought  in  by  consent  of  men, 
he  adds  that  it  was  an  ancient  order  of  the  Church,  even  from 


RAYNOLDS      REVIEW.  22$ 

St.  Mark ;  from  whence  't  is  apparent  that  the  order  of  the 
Church  he  mentions  has  relation  to  that  above  described,  in 
which  he  affirms  that  *  the  bishop  was  not  so  above  the  rest  in 
honor  as  to  have  rule  over  them.'  It  follows,  therefore,  that 
Calvin  does  not  so  much  as  seem  to  confess  of  St.  Jerome's 
report,  that  ever  since  St.  Mark's  time  bishops  have  had  a 
ruling  superiority  over  the  clergy," 


Hadrian 
»aravi 
1590 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

Saravia  on  Degrees  in  the  Ministry  —  Bishops  Necessary  to  the  Church 

—  Presbyters  can  Ordain,  necessitate  cogente —  Keble's  Gloss  Amend- 
ed—  SuTCLiFF  ON  Presbytery — Querimonia  EccLEsii^  —  Bancroft's  Sur- 
vey OF  the  Pretended  Holy  Discipline — Lay  Eldership  —  Beza's  View 

—  Tenure  of  the  Office  —  Cartwright  Corrected. 

THE  views  of  ministerial  order  so  earnestly  advocated 
by  Bancroft  in  a  sermon  ad  popuhnn,  were  soon  after 
defended  in  a  learned  treatise,  by  Hadrian  Saravia,  entitled, 
**  Of  the  Different  Degrees  of  Ministers  of  the  Gospel  as  they 
were  instituted  by  the  Lord,  and  delivered  on  by 
the  apostles,  and  confirmed  by  constant  use  of  all 
churches."  [No.  114.]  Saravia,  best  known  as  the 
friend  of  Hooker,  "  one  of  the  prebends  of  Can- 
terbury," says  Walton,  "  a  German  by  birth,  and  sometimes  a 
pastor  both  in  Flanders  and  Holland,"  claims  to  have  held  the 
views  expressed  in  his  book,  a  full  quarter  century  before  its 
publication,  or  since  1564,  when  he  lived  at  Ghent.  The  ex- 
plicitness,  not  to  say  boldness,  of  his  utterance  on  the  ques- 
tion of  Episcopal  prerogative  may  be  thought 
characteristic  of  the  foreigner,  or  the  proselyte. 
"Our  Fathers,"  he  writes,  "and  all  the  old  theologians  believed 
that  the  controlling  prudence  of  one  man  was  divinely  ap- 
pointed in  the  church  of  each  city  or  province,  for  avoiding 
schism  and  repressing  the  rashness  of  the  many.  There  are 
some  (the  Erastians)  who  think  that  all  control  of  manners  is 
to  be  left  entirely  to  the  control  of  the  civil  magistrate,  and 
confine  the  ministry  of  the  gospel  to  bare  preaching  of  the 
word  of  God  and  administering  the  sacraments ;  which  being 
impossible  to  be  made  out  by  the  word  of  God,  or  by  any 
example  of  the  Fathers,  I  wonder  that  such  a  thought  could 

226 


SARAVIA    ON    EPISCOPACY.  22/ 

ever  enter  into  the  mind  of  a  theologian.  Others  there  are 
who  assign  the  power  of  church  censures  to  bishops  and  to 
presbyters,  who  are  both  called  and  really  are  such,  (the  An- 
glican as  opposed  to  the  Genevan,)  with  that  authority  which 
God  gave  to  the  apostles,  and  to  those  who  after  them  should 
be  bishops  of  the  Church. 

"  The  third  sort  are  those  who,  rejecting  the  order  of  bishops, 
join  to  the  pastors  elders  chosen  for  a  time,  to  whom  they 
commit  the  whole  government  of  the  churches  and  dis- 
cipline ecclesiastical."  Then,  after  enumerating  the  several 
forms  of  civil  polity,  he  continues  :  "To  no  nation  did  God 
ever  appoint  any  certain  and  perpetual  form  of  government, 
which  it  should  be  unlawful  to  alter  according  to  place  and 
times.  But  of  this  government  whereof  we  are  now  discours- 
ing the  case  is  different;  for  since  it  came  immediately  from 
God,  men  cannot  alter  it  at  their  own  free  will.  Nor  is  there 
any  occasion  to  do  so.  For  God's  wisdom  hath  so  tempered 
this  polity,  that  it  opposes  itself  to  no  form  of  civil  govern- 
ment.    Bishops  I  consider  to  be   necessary   to   the 

.....  /•    1         Episcopacy 

Church,  and  that  disciplme  and  government  of  the      essential. 

Church  to  be  the  best,  and  divine,  which  religious 
bishops,  with  presbyters  truly  so  called,  (i.  e.  episcopally  or- 
dained,) administer  by  the  rule  of  God's  word  and  ancient 
councils."  {De  Div.  Min.  Ev.  Grad)  [No.  1 14.] 

Taking  these  statements  by  themselves,  we  might  be  led  to 
acquiesce  in  Keble's  conclusion,  that  "  Saravia  is  a  distinct 
and  independent  testimony  to  the  doctrine  of  exclusive  divine 
right  in  bishops,"  (Pref  to  Hooker,  p.  xxxiv..  Am.  ed.,)  and  to 
assign  him  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  Anglican  divine  to 
give  distinct  expression  to  that  doctrine.  Keble's  quotations 
stop  at  this  point ;  had  he  further  quoted  what  follows,  his 
readers  would  have  been  furnished  with  the  means  of  forming 
a  juster  judgment  of  Saravia's  position:  —  "In  our  fathers' 
memory,  Luther,  Bucer,  Qicolampadius,  and  others  had  no 
other  calling  than  that  which  they  had  received  in  the  Church 
of  Rome ;  and  when  it  happened  to  them  to  be  called  before 
Caesar,  no  question  respecting  their  calling  could  ever  be  justly 


228         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

raised ;  and  if  it  had  been,  they  had  an  answer  ready  more  fit 
in  my  judgment  than  that  which  was  made  at  the  Conference 
at  Poissy.  .  .  .  For  although  all  who  had  assembled  there  before 
the  king  had  not  the  same  kind  of  ordination,  and  some  were 
ordained  by  bishops  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  others  by  the  Re- 
formed Churches,  none  of  them  ought  to  have  been  ashamed  of 
his  ordination.  They  might,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  without  any 
danger,  have  professed  that  they  had  been  ordained  and  called, 
some  by  bishops  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  others  by  orthodox 
presbyters,  in  the  order  received  in  the  Churches  of  Christ, 
after  an  examination  of  their  morals  and  doctrine,  and  with  the 
authority  of  the  magistrate  and  consent  of  the  people,  with  the 
imposition  of  hands  and  prayer.  Although  I  am  of  opinion 
that  ordinations  of  ministers  of  the  Church  properly  belong  to 
bishops,  yet  necessity  causes  that  when  they  are  wanting  and 

cannot  be  had,  orthodox  presbyters  can,  in  case  of 
rdain        necessity,  ordain  a  presbyter;  which  thing,  although 

it  is  not  in  accordance  with  the  order  received  from 
the  times  of  the  apostles,  yet  is  excused  by  the  necessity  of  the 
case,  which  causes  that  in  such  a  state  of  things  a  presbyter  may 
be  a  bishop.  Moreover,  although  the  act  is  out  of  the  usual 
order,  the  calling  is  not  to  be  considered  extraordinary."  Then, 
after  saying  that  no  one  ought  to  receive  orders  from  a  heret- 
ical bishop,  and  that  the  Romish  bishops  are  all  heretics,  he 
adds :  "  This  also  is  true,  that  in  such  a  state  of  confusion  in 
the  Church,  when  all  the  bishops  fall  away  from  the  true  wor- 
ship of  God  unto  idolatry,  without  any  violation  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Church,  the  whole  authority  of  the  Episcopal 
ecclesiastical  government  is  devolved  upon  the  pious  and  or- 
thodox presbyters,  so  that  a  presbyter  clearly  may  ordain  pres- 
byten.  .  .  .  The  difference  there  is  between  presbyters  and 
pastors  of  the  Church  of  Christ  consists  in  the  authority  of 
ecclesiastical  government.  And  this  is  not  violated,  when  the 
higher  orders  being  in  any  way  removed,  those  who  are  of 
the  lowest  grade  alone  remain,  with  whom,  consequently,  the 
zvhole  poiver  of  the  keys  of  the  Church  then  resides.  .  .  .  But  where 
all  the  bishops   are   become  impious  heretics,  the    orthodox 


I 


I 


SUTCLIFFE  ON  PRESBYTERY.  229 

presbyters  are  freed  from  their  jurisdiction,  and  ought  to  vin- 
dicate to  themselves  the  power  of  the  keys  which  they  have 
received  in  their  ordination.  ...  I  certainly  know  not  by  what 
necessity  Master  Beza  should  have  been  compelled  to  resort 
to  an  extraordinary  calling.  For  I  do  not  think  that  either  he 
or  Nicholas  Galasius,  or  any  other  that  may  have  been  then 
present,  not  ordained  by  Romish  bishops,  took  upon  them- 
selves the  ministry  of  the  word  without  a  legitimate  calling 
received  in  the  Churches  of  Christ."  [Defens.  Tract,  de  Div. 
Min.,  etc.,  c.  ii.,  pp.  32,  33.)  [No.  115.] 

It  thus  appears  that  Saravia  is  in  full  agreement  with 
Hooker,  on  the  question  of  tJie  divine  right  of  Episcopacy  ; 
and  that  while  we  may  hence  adopt  the  statement  of  Keble 
respectingr  this  as^reement,  as  expressinsr  the  truth 

.      ^  ^  ^       .  .  '   .      ^^  \  ,    ,       *^        .  Keble's  gloss 

in  terms,  we  must  reject  it  m  Keble  s  meanmg,  as  amended 
directly  opposed  to  the  truth.  That  statement  is 
this :  "  Since  Saravia  was  afterwards  in  familiar  intercourse 
with  Hooker,  and  his  confidential  adviser  when  writing  on 
nearly  the  same  subjects,  we  may  with  reason  use  the  recorded 
opinions  of  the  one  for  interpreting  what  might  seem  other- 
wise ambiguous  in  the  other." 

The  same  year,  the  minister  of  the  Italian  Church  in  London 
having  published  a  book  in  defence  of  the  holy  discipline,  Dr. 
Matthew   Sutcliffe,  afterwards  dean  of  Exeter,  printed  a 
Latin  tract  concerning  the  form  and  essentials  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  a  number  of  treatises  in  both  Latin 
and    English,    in    this    and    the    year    following,       ' 
against  the  Puritan  discipline.   [No.  1 18-19.]    The 
tone  of  these  writings  may  be  judged  of  by  the  following  com- 
plaint of  Penry  (Petition  to  the  Queen,  1590  or  '91) :     "  Matt. 
Sutcliffe   hath   openly   in   Latin   defaced  foreign   churches  of 
whom   D.  Whitgift  and    others  have   always  written   honor- 
ably.    Whereby    it    is    likely  there   will    arise  as  dangerous 
troubles  to  the  churches  about  discipline  as  hath 
grown    by    the    question    of    consubstantiation."    p    , 
"  In  his  Latin  book  (De  Presbyterio)  he  attacked 
presbytery,"  says  Collier,  "with  a  great  deal  of  force,  pressed 


230         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

a  little  upon  the  quarter  of  Geneva,  and  mentioned  Beza  in 
the  controversy.  This  minister,  thinking  himself  ill-used  be- 
cause mentioned  without  approbation,  complains  of  the  affront 
in  a  letter  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  calls  Sutcliffe 
a  petulant  railer.  For  this  freedom  he  was  not  only  called  to 
an  account  by  Saravia,  in  his  Replication,  but  the  archbishop 
sent  him  a  reprimanding  answer  for  interesting  himself  in  the 
disputes  touching  religion  in  England.  He  let  him  know  he 
had  been  much  too  forward  and  decisive,  and  occasioned  no 
small  disturbance.  Beza,  perceiving  that  the  archbishop  and 
Saravia  were  likely  to  prove  an  over-match,  retired  from  the 
combat,  and  left  the  English  Puritans  to  shift  for  themselves. 
And  to  do  something  by  way  of  reparation  for  his  intermed- 
dling, he  writes  to  the  archbishop  in  terms  of  respect,  acquaint- 
ing him  that,  in  his  writings  concerning  Church  government, 
he  only  opposed  the  hierarchy  of  Rome,  but  never  had  any 
intention  to  reflect  upon  the  English  ecclesiastical  polity,  nor 
to  press  conformity  to  the  Genevan  discipline.  He  grants 
that,  provided  there  was  an  agreement  in  the  doctrine, 
churches  might  differ  defensively  enough  in  other  matters. 
And  here  he  throws  in  a  very  serviceable  limitation,  that,  *  in 
this  latitude,  nothing  unwarranted  by  antiquity  should  be  in- 
dulged ;  and  that  there  might  be  a  better  harmony  amongst 
the  reformed  in  Christendom,  he  hopes  the  sacred  episcopal 
college  would  always  continue  and  manage  their  privilege 
with  equity  and  moderation.'"  (vii.  128.) 

The  writings  of  Sutcliffe  —  "  an  acute  and  amusing,  but  not 
always  very  scrupulous  controversialist  " — were  speedily  fol- 
lowed by  a  publication    entitled    Qiicrimonia   Ec- 
guenmoma    ^^^,^-      -^^   which,   it  would   seem,   "  Hooker   was 

iLcclesiiE.  '  '  ' 

suspected  of  having  some  concern." 
Speaking  in  the  person  of  **  Ecclesia,"  the  writer  names  the 

want  of  discipline  as  the   second  of  four  grave  defects,  by 

which  our  Western  reformation  has  been  generally  blemished. 

Of  episcopacy  and  those  who  had  cast  it  off  he  writes: 

"  They  have  cut  the  nerves  of  that  most  excellent  discipline 

which  has  so  often  secured  my  safety,  the  shameless  violators, 


LAY    ELDERSHIP.  23I 

I  mean,  of  the  episcopal  authority.  Christ  is  our  Prince,  and 
though  he  has  not  prescribed  all  parts  of  discipline,  yet  he 
has  laid  down  common  rules,  which  ought  always  to  be  ob- 
served in  the  government  of  the  Church."  And  in  enumerating 
things  which  the  whole  Church  of  God  observes,  which  were 
instituted  by  the  apostles  or  by  apostolic  men,  and  in  all  time 
are  profitable  to  the  Christian  society,  which  therefore  are 
eveiywhere  to  be  religiously  retained,  he  specifies  Lent,  the 
holidays  of  our  Saviour,  different  offices  in  the  Church,  and 
degrees  in  the  ministry,  including  not  only  diocesan  bishops, 
but  archbishops,  primates  or  metropolitans,  and  patriarchs. 

Dr.  Bancroft,  not  yet  bishop,  further  signalized  his  zeal  in 
the  anti-Puritan  controversy,  now  daily  waxing  more  embit- 
tered, by  the  publication  of  two  books,  entitled,  respectively, 
A  Survey  of  tJie  Pretended  Holy  Discipline,  etc.,  [No. 
132,]  purporting  to  give  a  full  exposition,  from  the 
original  sources,  of  the  Presbyterian  system,  and  Dangerous 
Positions  and  Proceedings  published  and  practised 

within  this  Island  of  Great  Britain,  wider  pretence      I 

•^  '  ^  Survey. 

of  Reformation,  and  for  the  Preshyterial  Disciplined 

[No.  133.] 

Of  the  thirty-five  chapters  into  which  the  Survey  is  divided, 
two  (the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth)  are  occupied  with  the 
discussion  of  topics  of  present  interest  in  the  Presbyterian 
communion :  "  Whether  their  elders  be  ecclesiastical  men  or 
laymen?  "  and  "the  continuance  of  their  elders  in  office." 

As  these  are  questions  which  yet  await  a  definitive  solution, 
and  are  now,  after  the  lapse  of  wellnigh  three  centuries, 
mooted  afresh,*  it  will  be  interesting  to  note  the 

1  .   1      ,  ,  ,,     ,   .  Lay  eldership. 

manner  m  which  they  were  handled  in  an  age  so 
near  that  of  the  birth  of  Presbytery. 

On  the  former  question :  Whether  the  presbyterian  ruling 
elders,  so  called,  are  laymen  ?  our  author  quotes  Cartwright 
to  the  following  effect :  "  Forasmuch  as  they  (elders)  are 
church-officers,  and  over  the  people  in  matters  pertaining  to 
God,  and  such  as  watch  over  the  souls  of  men,  though  they 

*  See  Nos.  589,  716,  793  a,  in  Bibliographical  Appendix. 


232         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH, 

were  no  pastors  to  preach  the  Word,  yet  they  zvere  no  laymen, 
(as  they  term  them,)  but  ecclesiastical  persons.  Which  if  any 
man  will  deny,  let  him  deny  also  that  two  and  two  make 
four."  And  saith  the  Counterpoison :  "  Whosoever  is  called 
with  due  examination  and  trial,  with  the  consent  of  those  to 
whom  it  appertaineth,  and  are  with  fasting  and  prayers,  or 
with  prayers  only  and  with  imposition  of  hands  separated  or 
put  apart  to  that  office,  they  are  ecclesiastical  persons,  and  not 
laymen,  (as  they  term  them.)"  (P.  130.) 

"But  Beza,  as  I  take  it,  is  plain  in  this  point,  and  to  our  men 
very  opposite.  For  saith  he,  in  proof  of  his  elders  :  '  Surely 
except  some  men  chosen  out  of  the  body  of  the  whole  assembly 
should  sit  in  that  company  by  whom  the  whole 
Church  is  governed,  the  general  name  of  the 
Church  would  scarcely  agree  to  that  company ;  with  which 
name  notwithstanding  it  is  adorned,  because  through  that 
means,  men  being  chosen  out  of  all  the  parts  of  the  whole  CJinrch, 
they  might  represent  the  whole  Church.'*  By  which  words 
his  meaning  must  needs  be,  either  that  for  the  better  repre- 
sentation of  the  whole  Church,  there  must  be  as  well  laymen, 
(as  we  call  them,)  of  the  eldership,  as  ministers;  or  that  their 
elders  ought  to  be  chosen  out  of  the  company  of  men  of  every 
trade  and  vocation :  which  cannot  in  any  wise  agree  to  the 
practice  of  Geneva,  where  men  of  the  state  and  councillors  are 
only  chosen.  Now  if  upon  their  choice,  as  being  idiots  (idiotas) 
before,  they  are  become  wise ;  so  of  laymen  they  are  presently 
made  ecclesiastical  persons  :  then  the  representation  of  both 
the  estates  is  drowned  ;  by  which  means  their  eldership  might 
lose  the  name  of  Church,  or  at  the  least  scarcely  continue  it." 

Beza  is  then  further  quoted  as  in  opposition  both  to  himself 
and  "all  his  abettors  in  the  erection  of  their  eldership:' 
'  When  Christ  used  these  words.  Tell  the  CJiiircJi,  etc.,  He 
understood  in  the  person  of  his  disciples  a  lawful  senate  or 
company  assembled  together  in  the  name  of  the  Church,' 
{lb.,  p.  53,)     And:  'the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  were 

*  De  Excom.,  p.  112. 


TENURE    OF    THE    OFFICE.  233 

^ivcn  to  all  true  ciders,  (including  ruling  elders,)  in  the  person 
of  the  apostles.'  Which  opinion  of  his,"  continues  Bancroft, 
"  first  overthroweth  his  collection,  that  there  must  needs  be 
unpriestly  elders  for  the  said  representation  by  him  devised. 
For  here  we  see  the  Church  represented  sufficiently,  in  his 
judgment,  {Matt,  xvi.  19  and  18,)  by  Christ's  disciples  and 
apostles ;  they  being  all  of  them  ministers  of  the  word  and 
sacraments  to  whom  Christ  there  spake.  Secondly,  if  the 
apostles  in  receiving  the  keys  sustained  the  person  of  all  true 
priests,  and  if  Peter,  when  Christ  said  unto  him.  Unto  thee  ivill 
I  give  the  keys,  sustained  the  person  of  the  apostles ;  it  fol- 
loweth  that  one  man  may  sustain  the  person  of  all  Beza's  true 
elders  or  eldership ;  and  so,  consequently,  it  is  not  against  the 
word  of  God,  if  we  say,  Tell  the  Church,  that  is.  Tell  the  bishops, 

VIZ.,  ONE  MAN." 

On  the  other  point  —  the  tenure  of  office  on  the  part  of 
the  eldership  —  a  like  diversity  of  sentiment  is  developed :  "  At 
Geneva  their  elders  are  simply  chosen  but  for  a  year.  In  the 
French  Church  in  London  they  are  elected  (as  I 
hear)  for  three  years.  It  was  thus  ordered  in  the  tj^e^o^^e 
national  council  of  the  Belgic  Churches  at  the 
Hague,  1586:  'Let  the  elders  and  deacons  serve  two  years ; 
and  the  half  of  them  shall  be  changed  every  year,'  etc.  Scot- 
land followeth  the  Geneva  order,  and  doth  retain  them  but  for 
a  year;  and  then  every  man  as  he  was  before.  A  prelate, 
Christ's  vicar,  a  bishop,  an  archbishop,  an  ecclesiastical  man 
this  year ;  and  a  plain  dauber,  a  thatcher,  a  tailor,  a  cobbler, 
and  a  tinker,  the  next  year.  .  .  .  But  what  will  you  think  if 
now  the  matter  begin  to  be  called  in  question,  whether  Geneva 
first,  and  then  after,  whether  other  Reformed  churches  of  the 
Low  Countries  and  Scotland  have  done  well,  in  makine;  these 
elders  but  temporal  officers,  rather  than  ministers  of  the 
Word  ?  Certainly  a  learned  man  of  that  humor  told  me 
plainly,  that  both  Geneva  and  the  rest  were  thought  by  divers 
grave  men  to  have  done  amiss  therein.  And  peradventure  by 
degrees  you  shall  see  some  alteration  about  that  matter.  For 
the  brethren  of  England,  in  their  subscribed  Discipline,  do 


234         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

begin  to  make  some  qualification  that  way  (as  it  seemeth  unto 
me)  when  they  say:  ^ Let  not  the  ciders  be  perpetual^  nor  yet 
easily  removed!  They  must  not  be  perpetual ;  but  yet  no  time 
is  prescribed ;  so  that  they  may  continue  elders  by  this  rule, 
through  the  strength  of  one  ordination,  twenty  years,  if  the 
rest  of  their  company  be  so  pleased.  And  Caroliis  GalluSy  in 
his  book  of  Discipline,  is  already  come  to  the  point,  affirming 
directly,  that  it  is  not  lazvfid  for  an  elder  of  the  Church  after  two 
or  three  years  to  give  over  his  charge ^  but  he  must  continue  the 
same  until  Jus  death.  .  .  .  With  whom  agreeth  Bannosius,  {De 
Polit.  Civit.  Dei,  etc.,  c.  71,)  alleging  this  old  canon,  which  pro- 
videth,  Ne  bis  presbyter  ordinetur,  etc. ;  that  a  priest  or  elder  be 
not  twice  ordained.  For  ordination  (saith  he)  is  the  consecration 
of  a  perpetual  fimction.  This  surely  draweth  deeply.  I  am 
persuaded  that  whilst  Beza  liveth  it  will  never  be  admitted  at 
Geneva.  For  so  if  their  twelve  elders  did  see  their  authority 
to  be  of  such  continuance,  they  might  peradventure  hold  the 
six  ministers  noses  to  the  grindstone.  Whereas,  now,  they 
knowing  their  kingdom  to  be  of  such  small  continuance,  even 
as  they  please  the  ministers,  do  suffer  them  to  reign  and  do 
what  they  list;  fearing  what  after-claps  might  light  upon  them 
the  year  after,  if  they  should  do  otherwise.  " 

In  another  place,  speaking  of  the  patristic  authority  "falsely 
alleged  for  pretended  parish-bishops  and  elders,"  Bancroft  ex- 
claims loudly  against  the  impudence  of  such  a  pretence:  "Is 
Cartwright  able  to  find  his  parish-bishops  and  his  counterfeit 
lay-elders  (which  two  points  are  in  effect  all  with 

artwrig  t    -j^j^x  j^  ^j^^  ancient  fathers  and  primitive  Church  ? 

called  to  ^  ,  i  .  •  , 

account.  -^^  "^^7  ^"^Y  ^^  truly  that  the  sun  shmes  at  mid- 
night. But  yet  he  saith  that  Ignatius  and  Cyprians 
bishops  were  but  as  our  pastors  or  parsons  in  every  parish.  For 
his  unministering  elders  he  alleged  the  same  Ignatius  and 
Cyprian ;  and  for  a  surcharge  he  bringeth  in  also  Tertullian, 
Jerome,  Possidonius,  and  Socrates.  I  was  once  purposed  to 
have  set  down  the  places  which  they  so  violently  pervert,  to 
bolster  out  such  their  apparent  falsehood,  and  to  have  answered 
them ;  but  then  I  remembered  how  effectually  that  had  been 


RAYNOLDS    APPEALED    TO.  235 

done  already  by  divers  learned  and  worthy  men,  and  of  late 
more  fully  and  largely  by  tivo  special  persons,  whose  books,  one 
of  them  is  in  printing,  (probably  Bishop  Bilson's  Perpetual 
Government,  etc.,)  and  the  other  presently  coming  to  the  press, 
{Tlie  Laws  of  Ecclesiastical  PoUty^j  and  thereupon  I  altered  my 
mind."  (Chap,  xxx.) 

"  Can  it  be  showed  out  of  any  ancient  Father,  out  of  any 
council,  either  general  or  provincial,  or  out  of  any  ecclesias- 
tical history,  for  the  space  of  one  thousand  five  hundred  and 
odd  years,  even  from  the  apostles'  time  till  of  late,  that  in  the 
ordinary    distribution    of  Church    officers,  (since 

.  ,  ,    .  .  ,        ^  Parochial 

that  tune  ever  used,)  mto  episcopos,  presoyteros,  et  ^ishopg 
diaconos,  (bishops,  priests,  and  deacons ;)  whether 
can  it  (I  say)  be  showed  that  this  word  episcopus,  that  is, 
bishop,  was  at  any  time  taken  there  and  used  by  the  churches 
in  any  country,  for  a  common  and  usual  name  to  all  ministers 
of  the  word  and  sacraments,  without  distinguishing  thereby 
any  one  of  them  from  another,  or  was  it  not  ever,  within  the 
time  limited,  taken  and  used  only  in  the  said  distribution,  for 
one  amongst  the  ministers  of  the  word  and  sacraments,  that 
governed  the  rest  both  of  the  ministers  and  people  within 
their  circuits  limited  unto  them  ? 

"  This  question  was  sent  to  Master  Doctor  Raynolds,  in 
Oxford,  to  the  intent  he  might  return  his  opinion  of  (it,)  which 
he  forbare  at  the  time  to  do,  in  respect  of  certain  other  busi- 
ness that  he  had  in  hand;  howbeit  Master  Dr.  Robinson, 
(his  especial  and  most  familiar  friend,)  being  ac- 
quainted, as   it  seemeth,  with  the   said   question,      ^^7"°^ 

^  appealed  to. 

hath  written  in  this  sort  upon  another  occasion, 
not  dissenting  therein,  as  I  take  it,  from  Master  Dr.  Raynolds. 
'"  I  am  persuaded,'  saith  he,  '  that  the  angel  of  the  Church  of 
Ephesus,  to  whom  St.  John  writeth,  was  one  minister  set  over 
the  rest.  For,  seeing  there  were  many  pastors  there,  why 
should  St.  John  write  to  the  angel  of  the  Church  of  Ephesus, 
and  not  rather  to  the  angels,  if  there  had  been  no  difference 
amongst  them  ?  And  if  this  presidency  had  had  that  fault 
which  is   reproved  in  Diotrcphes,  our  Saviour,  who  by   his 


2X6  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH 


servant  reproveth  those  disorders  which  he  found  in  the  seven 
churches,  would  not  have  passed  over  this  great  fault  in  silence. 
Therefore,  as  Titus  was  left  to  reform  the  churches  throughout 
the  whole  island  of  Crete,  so  I  am  persuaded  that  in  other 
places  some  of  that  order  of  pastors  and  teachers  which  is  per- 
petual in  the  Church,  even  in  the  time  of  the  apostles,  had  a 
prelacy  amongst  their  brethren,  and  that  this  pre-eminence  is 
approved  by  our  Saviour.  And  if  we  come  any  lower,  though 
the  word  episcopiis  signify  that  care  which  is  required  of  all, 
and  in  Scripture  be  applied  to  all  that  have  charge  of  souls, 
yet  I  do  not  remember  any  one  ecclesiastical  writer,  that  I 
have  read,  wherein  that  word  doth  not  import  a  greater  dig- 
nity than  is  common  to  all  ministers.  Neither  do  I  think 
that  any  old  writer  did,  under  the  name  of  bishop,  mean  the 
pastor  of  every  parish.  When  the  emperors  were  persecutors, 
we  read  of  several  elders,  but  never  of  more  than  one  bishop 
at  once,  in  Rome ;  the  like  is  to  be  said  of  other  great  cities 
and  the  churches  near  adjoining.' 

"  Thus  far  Dr.  Robinson,  with  whom  if  Master  Dr.  Ray- 
nolds  do  agree,  I  see  not  whither  the  factioners  will  turn  them, 
for  (as  I  take  it)  they  will  not  reject  his  opinion.  They  have 
bragged  much  of  him,  indeed,  and  of  his  judgment,  in  sundry 
of  their  writings,  as  though  he  were  wholly  on  their  side,  and 
that  they  held  nothing  but  he  would  justify  it.  Howbeit,  they 
have  done  him  therein,  I  doubt  not,  exceeding  great  injur>^ 
For  requital  whereof  I  would  wish  him  never  to  seek  any 
other  revenge  but  to  turn  them  to  his  book  against  Hart, 
[No.  91,]  where  he  hath  written  his  mind,  as  touching  this 
point  now  in  hand. 

"  'In  the  Church  of  Ephesus,'  saith  Dr.  Raynolds,  'though  it 
had  sundry  elders  and  pastors  to  guide  it,  yet  amongst  those 
sundry  was  there  one  chief,  whom  our  Saviour  calleth  the 
angel  of  the  church,  and  writeth  that  to  him  which  by  him 
the  rest  should  know.  And  this  is  he  whom  afterwards  in 
the  primitive  church  the  Fathers  called  bishop.  For  .  .  .  the 
name  bishop,  common  (before)  to  all  elders  and  pastors  of  the 


RAYNOLDS    APPEALED    TO.  23/ 

church,  was  then  by  the  usual  language  of  the  Fathers  appro- 
priated to  him  who  had  the  presidentship  over  elders.' 

"  Here  then  you  have  two  for  Oxford,  touching  the  language 
of  the  ancient  Fathers  when  they  speak  of  bishops.  Now  you 
shall  have  a  Cambridge  man's  opinion.  .  .  .  Master  Dr.  Fulke, 
in  his  confutation  of  the  Rhemish  notes  upon  the  New  Testa- 
ment, writeth  thus:  '  Amongst  the  clergy,  for  order  and  seemly 
government,  there  was  alway  one  principal,  to  whom,  by  long 
use  of  the  Church,  the  name  of  bishop,  or  superintendent,  hath 
been  applied ;  which  room  Titus  exercised  in  Crete,  Timothy 
in  Ephesus,  and  others  in  other  places.  Therefore,  although 
in  the  Scripture  a  bishop  and  an  elder  is  of  one  order  and 
authority,  in  preaching  the  word  and  administration  of  the 
sacraments,  (as  Jerome  doth  often  confess,)  yet  in  government, 
by  ancient  nse  of  speech,  he  is  only  called  a  bishop,  which  is  in 
the  Scriptures  called  TpoitfTafjisvoc:,  'Kpos(JTc6g,  or  fy^ou/xsvoc:,  [Rom.  xii , 
I  Tim.  v.  17,  Heb.  xiii.  17,)  that  is,  chief  in  government,  to 
whom  the  ordination  or  consecration  by  imposition  of  hands, 
was  always  principally  committed,'  etc.  Again,  '  It  appeareth 
by  many  places  of  Wycliffe's  works,  and  namely  in  his  Homily 
upon  Phil,  i.,  that  he  acknowledgeth  the  distinction  of  bishops 
and  priests  for  order  and  government,  although  for  doctrine 
and  administration  of  sacraments  they  are  all  one.'  Again, 
*  In  the  Fathers,  episcopus  and  presbyter,  bishop  and  priest,  are 
two  distinct  degrees.'  "  [Ibid) 

"  It  is  most  apparent,  and  cannot  be  denied,  but  that  Irenaeus, 
Cyprian,  Tertullian,  Ambrose,  Jerome,  Augustine,  and  divers 
other  ancient  writers,  do  call  bishops  the  apostles'  successors; 
in  so  much  as  some  of  them,  especially  the  authors  of  the 
ecclesiastical  histories,  do  draw  long  catalogues  of  the  partic- 
ular bishops'  names  that  succeeded  the  apostles  and  other 
apostolical  men  whom  they  made  bishops.  Which  catalogues 
and  manner  of  speech  of  the  said  Fathers  being  used  by 
them  very  fitly  against  such  heretics  as  did  rise  up  in  their 
days,  have  since,  in  our  time,  been  greatly  abused  by  the 
Papists.  Unto  whom  the  learned  men  that  have  stood  for  the 
truth  against  them,  by   writing,   have   continually  answered. 


238         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

that  the  Fathers'  arguments,  drawn  from  the  said  personal 
succession  by  bishops,  were  very  effectual,  so  long  as  the  suc- 
cession of  the  apostles'  doctrine  did  concur  therewithal ;  and  that 
the  Fathers,  in  urging  of  the  first,  had  ever  an  especial  eye  to 
the  second,  some  point  of  doctrine  being  ever  called  in  ques- 
tion by  the  said  heretics."  {Ibid,  xxvii.) 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Bii-son's  Perpetual  Government  OF  THE  Church^ Scope  of  the  Work  — 
Apostolic  Succession  through  Bishops  Affirmed — Hooker — Laws  of 
Ecclesiastical  Polity  —  The  Nucleus  of  the  Controversy  between  the 
Prelatists  and  Puritans  —  Three  Views  —  Hooker's  Conduct  of  the 
Argument  —  His  Elevated  Aim  —  Distinction  between  the  Church 
Mystical  and  Visible — Church  and  State  one  Society  —  Theory  Iden- 
tical with  THAT  OF  Locke  —  Episcopacy  a  Divine  Lnstitution  —  Ordi- 
nation without  a  Bishop — Presbyterian  Orders  —  Keble's  Gloss. 

SOON  after  the  publication  of  the  Sm'vey,  in  the  same  year, 
came  forth   a  volume  of  enduring  value :   TJie  Perpetual 
Government  of  Chris fs   ClmrcJi,   [No.    134,]  by   Dr.    Thomas 
BiLSOX,  afterward  Bishop  of  Winchester,  vir  magni  in  Ecclesia 
noniinis,  as  Pearson  justly  styles  him.     "  The  argu- 
ment of  this  work,"  says  its  latest  editor,  "  has      Bilson's 
ever  been  held  to  be  unanswerable :  an  opinion     ^^''petual 
the  justness  of  which  is  best  established  by  the        j^ 
fact,  that  no  one  has  been  found  who  has  attempted 
to  answer  it."     "  Of  the  many  treatises  written  on  the  whole 
subject,"  says  Bishop  EUicott,  this  is  "  one  that  may  be  espe- 
cially recommended  to  the  student."  * 

As  a  defence  of  the  episcopal  polity,  in  opposition  to  pres- 
bytery, it  is  unsurpassed,  alike  for  cogency  of  argument  and 
wealth  of  learning.     On  the  question  of  a  twofold  eldership, 
as  broached  by  Calvin,  and  maintained  by  Beza,  it  is  particu- 
larly full,  clear,  and  convincing.     The  scope  of  the 
work  is  well  set  forth  by  the  author  in  the  intro-     ^^^y^j^ 
ductory  epistle.     "  I  have  been  very  unwilling  to 
enter  into  these  controversies  of  discipline,  that  have   now 
some  space  troubled  the  Church  of  England ;  .  .  .  yet  when  I 
saw  the  peace  of  God's  Church  violated  by  the  sharpness  of 

■'^  Com.  in  i  Tim.  iii. 

239 


240         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

some  men's  humors,  and  their  tongues  so  intemperate  that 
they  could  not  be  discerned  from  open  enemies,  I  thought  as 
in  a  common  danger,  not  to  sit  looking  till  all  were  on  fire, 
but  rather  by  all  means  to  try  what  kind  of  liquor  would  res- 
tinguish  the  flame. 

"The  main  supports  of  their  (the  Presbyterian)  new-devised 
discipline  are  the  general  equality  of  all  pastors  and  teachers, 
and  the  joining  of  lay  elders  with  them  to  make  up  the  presby- 
tery, that  shall  govern  the  Church.  On  this  foundation  they 
build  the  power  of  their  consistory,  that  must  admonish  and 
punish  all  offences,  etc.  Against  these  false  grounds,  I  show 
the  Church  of  God  from  Adam  to  Moses,  from  Moses  to 
Christ,  and  so  downward  under  patriarchs,  prophets,  and  apos- 
tles, hath  been  always  governed  by  an  inequality  and  supe- 
riority of  pastors  and  teachers  amongst  themselves :  and  so 
much  the  very  name  and  nature  of  government  do  enforce. 

"  Some  of  our  new  platformers  . . .  confess  it  to  be  an  essential 
and  perpetual  part  of  God's  ordinance,  for  each  presbytery  to 
have  a  chief  amongst  them ;  and  yet,  lest  they  should  seem  to 
agnize  or  admit  the  ancient  and  approved  manner  of  the  prim- 
itive Church  retained  amongst   us,  which    is,  to 

New 

Platformers  ^PPO'^^  a  fit  man  to  govern  each  diocese,  they 
have  framed  a  running  regency,  that  shall  go 
round  to  all  the  presbyters  of  each  place  by  course,  and  dure 
for  a  week,  or  some  such  space,  for  the  device  is  so  new,  that 
they  are  not  yet  resolved  what  time  this  changeable  supe- 
riority shall  continue.  .  .  .  They  pronounce  this  only  to  be 
God's  institution,  and  this  overseer  or  bishop  to  be  apostolic ; 
all  others  they  reject  as  human ;  that  is,  as  invented  and  estab- 
lished by  man  against  the  first  and  authentic  order  of  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

*'Thus  far  we  join,  that  to  prevent  dissension  and  avoid  con- 
fusion, there  must  needs,  even  by  God's  ordinance,  be  a  presi- 
dent or  ruler  of  every  presbytery ;  which  conclu- 

Point  of  .  ,  .    .  ,  ,         ,  ,        ,- 

agreement     sion,  because  it  IS  warranted  by  the  grounds  of  na- 
ture, reason,  and  truth,  and  hath  the  example  of 
the  Church  of  God.  before,  under,  and  after  the  law.  to  con- 


APOSTOLIC    SUCCESSION.  24I 

firm  it,  we  accept  as  irrefutable,  and  lay  it  as  the  goundvvork 
of  all  that  ensueth.     But  whether  this  presidentship  did  in  the 
apostles*    times,    and    by   their   appointment,    go 
round  by  course  to   all  the  pastors  and  teachers     difterenc 
of  every  presbytery,  or  were  by  election  commit- 
ted to  one  chosen  as  the  fittest  to  supply  that  place,  so  long 
as  he  discharged  his  duty  without  blame,  tJiat  is  a  inabi  point 
in  question  bctiuixt  21s!' 

The  other  "main  point"  is  stated  thus:  "Certain  great 
writers,  greatly  misliking  in  the  government  of  the  Church, 
the  Romish  kind  of  monarchy,  and  on  the  other  side  shun- 
ning as  much  popular  tumult  and  anarchy,  preferred  a  middle 
course  betwixt  them  oi  aristocracy,  thinking  the  Church  would 
then  be  best  guided,  when  neither  one  for  danger  of  tyranny, 
nor  all,  for  fear  of  mutiny,  did  bear  the  sway,  but  a  number 
of  the  gravest  and  sincerest  undertook  the  managing  of  all 
matters  incident  to  the  ecclesiastical  regiment."  Hence,  "they 
compounded  their  presbyteries  partly  of  pastors  and  partly  of 
lay  elders,  whom  they  named  governing  presbyters. 

"  To  proclaim  this  as  a  fresh  device  of  their  own,  would  be 
somewhat  odious,  and  therefore  they  sought  by  all  means,  as 
well  with  examples  as  authorities,  to  make  it  seem  ancient, 
for  the  better  accomplishing  of  their  desire.  .  .  . 

"  The  power  of  the  keys  was   first  settled   in  the  apostles 
before  it  was  delivered  unto  the  Church  ;  and  the  Church  re- 
ceived it  from  the  apostles,  not  the  apostles  from  the  Church. 
.  .  .  The  authority  of  their  first  calling  liveth  yet  in  their  suc- 
cession, and  time   and  travail  joined  with   God's 
graces  bring  pastors  at  this  present  to  perfection  ;     succession 
yet  the  apostles'   charge  to  teach,  baptize,  and  ad- 
minister the  Lord's  Supper,  to  bind  and  loose  sins  in  heaven 
and  in  earth,  to  impose  hands  for  the  ordaining  of  pastors  and 
elders  :  these  parts  of  the  apostolic  function  are  not  decayed, 
and  cannot  be  wanted   in  the   Church  of  God.      There  must 
either  be  no  Church,  or  else  these  must  remain  ;  for  without 
these  no  Church  can  continue.  ...  As  the  things  be  needful 
in  the  Church,  so  the  persons  to  whom  they  were  first  com- 
16 


242         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

mitted  cannot  be  doubted.  .  .  .  The  service  must  endure  as 
long  as  the  promise  ;  to  the  end  of  the  world.  .  .  .  Christ  is 
present  with  those  who  succeed  his  apostles  in  the  same 
function  and  ministry  forever."  (Pp.  104-7.)     "  Things  proper 

to  bishops,  that  might  not  be  common  to  them 

Through  the    ^,j|-j-^  presbyters,   were   singularity  in  succeeding, 

Ijj^g^  and  superiority  in  ordaining.  .  .  .  The  singularity 

of  one  pastor  in  each  place  descended  from  the 
apostles  and  their  scholars  in  all  famous  churches  in  the 
world,  by  a  perpetual  chain  of  succession,  and  doth  to  this 
day  continue,  but  where  abomination  or  desolation,  I  mean 
knavery  or  violence,  interrupt  it." 

The  Perpetual  Government  proved  the  harbinger  of  a  greater 
work  :  Of  the  Laws  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity.  Eight  Books.  By 
Richard  Hooker.  [No,  135.]     The  great  question  discussed 

by  Hooker,  the  nucleus  of  the  whole  controversy 

between  the  prelatists  and  the  Puritans,  was  the 

question  of  Church  authority :  not  so  much,  as  Keble  points 

out,  the  question  as  to  the  reach  and  limits  of  that  authority, 

as  the  question  with  whom  does  Church  authority 
The  question  ■  a     -.    u  r\      ux.-  -    ,.    •      \j       1       <     i.- 

in  dispute     reside  ?      On  this  pomt,  m  Hooker  s  time,  as  now, 

the  Christian  world  in  Europe  (speaking  largely) 

was  divided  into  three  great  parties.     The  first,  that  of  the 

ultra-montane  Romanists,  who  deny  to  the  civil  government 

any  further  prerogative  in  Church  matters,  that  is, 

as  they  interpret,  in  all  matters  of  conscience,  than 

that  of  executing  the  decrees  of  popes  and  councils. 

The  second  party,  that  of  the  Ghibellines  in  the  Empire,  of 
the  prerogative  lawyers  in  the  kingdom  of  France,  of  Henry 
the  Eighth  in  England,  and  generally  of  all  in  every  country 
who  maintain  more  or  less  expressly  the  claims  of  the  local 
governments  against  the  Papacy,  adopt  the  principle  (with 
numberless  shades  of  difference,  some  of  them  very  deeply 
marked,)  that  Church  laws  and  constitutions  are  on  the  whole 
left  by  Providence  to  the  discretion  of  the  civil  power.  To 
this  latter  party,  whether  on  principle  or  on  account  of  the 
exigency  of  their  position,  most  of  the  early  Reformers  attached 


THREE    VIEWS.  243 

themselves.  Its  theory  is  implied  in  the  general  course  of 
proceeding  of  the  Lutherans,  the  Zuinglians,  and  the  Angli- 
cans under  the  lead  of  Cranmer. 

"  To  these  two  parties,  which  had  subsisted  in  much  the  same 
form,  at  least  down  from  the  age  of  Gregory  VII.,  the  events 
of  the  Genevan  Reformation  and  the  character  and  views  of 
Calvin  had  added  a  third,  about  thirty  years  after  the  rise  of 
Luther ;  a  party  which  agreed  with  the  Romanists  in  acknowl- 
edging a  Church  authority  independent  of  the  state,  but  dif- 
fered from  them  as  to  the  persons  with  whom  such  authority 
was  intrusted;  assigning  it,  not  to  the  successors  of  the  apos- 
tles as  such,  but  to  a  mixed  council  of  presbyters,  lay  and 
spiritual,  holding  their  commission,  not  as  an  inward  grace 
derived  from  our  Lord  by  laying  on  of  hands,  but  as  an 
external  prerogative,  granted  by  positive  enactment  of  Holy 
Scripture. 

"  There  were  predisposing  circumstances  which  made  Eng- 
land in  the  Elizabethan  period,  a  promising  field  for  the  efforts 
of  the  foreign  presbyterians.  Some  of  these  are  touched  on 
by  Hooker  himself  in  his  Preface,  and  by  G.  Cranmer  in  his 
Letter  on  the  Discipline."  Others  are  specified  by  Keble. 
But  the  most  noteworthy  is  the  fact  that  "  not  only  in  the 
parliaments  of  Elizabeth,  but  also  in  her  cabinet,  at  least  for 
the  first  thirty  years  of  her  reign,  there  existed  a  very  strong 
bias  in  behalf  of  the  Puritan  party.  Not  only  Knollys  and 
Mildmay,  who  were  Calvinists  and  Low  Churchmen  on  prin- 
ciple, and  Leicester,  who  may  be  suspected  of  looking  chiefly 
to  the  spoils  which  any  great  church  movement  might  place 
at  his  disposal ;  but  even  Burghley  and  Walsingham,  it  is  well 
known,  were  continually  finding  themselves  at  issue  with  the 
archbishop  of  the  day  in  reference  to  the  degree  of  discourage- 
ment due  to  the  Reformers."  The  latter  was  the  especial  patron 
of  Raynolds,  the  former  of  Walter  Travers,  the  antagonist  of 
Hooker  and  author  of  the  book  De  Disciplina  Ecclesiastica. 
[No.  83.] 

The  advocates  of  the  presbyterian  polity  claimed,  as  we 
have  seen,  to  deduce  their  scheme  of  discipline  exclusively 


244        THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

from  the  Scriptures.  Their  reverence  for  the  Word  of  God 
was  associated,  as  Hallam  remarks,  with  a  singular  narrow- 
ness of  view  "on  the  great  themes  of  natural  religion  and  the 
moral  law,  as  deducible  from  reason  and  sentiment."  These, 
as  most  of  the  various  families  of  their  descendants  continue 
to  do,  they  greatly  slighted,  or  even  treated  as  the  mere  chi- 
meras of  heathen  philosophy.  If  they  looked  to  the  Mosaic 
law  as  the  standard  of  criminal  jurisprudence,  if  they  sought 
precedents  from  Scripture  for  all  matters  of  temporal  policy, 
much  more  would  they  deem  the  practice  of  the  apostles  an 
unerring  and  immutable  rule  for  the  discipline  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

To  encounter  these  adversaries,   "  Hooker  took  a  far  more 

original  course  than  the  ordinary  controvertists,  who  fought 

their  battle  with  conflicting  interpretations  of  Scriptural  texts 

or  passages  from  the  Fathers.     He  inquired  into 

,    ^    -  ,     '  the  nature  and  foundation  of  law  itself  as  the  rule 
duct  of  the 

argument,  of  operation  to  all  created  beings,  yielding  thereto 
obedience  by  unconscious  necessity,  or  sensitive 
appetite,  or  reasonable  choice  ;  reviewing  especially  those  laws 
that  regulate  human  agency,  as  they  arise  out  of  moral  rela- 
tions, common  to  our  species,  or  the  institutions  of  politic 
societies,  or  the  intercommunity  of  independent  nations ;  and 
having  thoroughly  established  the  fundamental  distinction 
between  laws  natural  and  positive,  eternal  and  temporary, 
immutable  and  variable,  he  came  with  all  this  strength  of 
moral  philosophy  to  discriminate  by  the  same  criterion  the 
various  rules  and  precepts  contained  in  the  Scriptures. 

"  It  was  a  kind  of  maxim  among  the  Puritans,  that  Scrip- 
ture was  so  much  the  exclusive  rule  of  human  actions,  that 
whatever,  in  matters  at  least  concerning  religion,  could  not 
be  found  to  have  its  authority,  was  unlawful.  Hooker  devotes 
the  whole  second  book  of  his  work  to  the  refutation  of  this 
principle.  He  proceeds  afterwards  to  attack  its  application 
more  particularly  to  the  Episcopal  scheme  of  Church  govern- 
ment, and  to  the  various  ceremonies  or  usages  which  the 
Puritans  treated  as  either  absolutely  superstitious,  or  at  least 


CHURCH     MYSTICAL    AND    VISIBLE.  245 

as  impositions  without  authority.  He  maintains,  not  only  that 
ritual  observances  are  variable  according  to  the  discretion  of 
ecclesiastical  rulers,  but  that  no  ccrtam  form  of  polity  is  set 
down  in  Scripture  as  generally  indispensable  for  a  Christian 
Church.  Far,  however,  from  conceding  to  his  antagonists  the 
fact  which  they  assumed,  he  contended  for  Episcopacy  as  an 
apostolical  institution,  and  always  preferable,  when  circum- 
stances would  allow  its  preservation,  to  the  more  democratical 
model  of  the  Calvinistic  congregations."  * 

The   elevation    of  this  great  writer's  aims   in   the  conduct 
of  this  controversy,  the  native  nobleness  of  spirit  displayed 
throughout  his  work,  in  dealing  with  a  bitter  and  unrelenting 
foe,  may  be  best  illustrated  by  quoting  his  own  lofty  words : 
**  If  we  did  seek  to  maintain  that  which  most  ad- 
vantageth  our  own   cause,  the  very  best  way  for    g^i^j^j.^^  ^ 
us   and  the  strongest  against  them  were  to  hold, 
even  as  they  do,  that  in  Scripture  there  must  needs  be  found 
some  particular  form  of  Church  polity  which  God  hath  insti- 
tuted, and  which  for  that  very  cause  belongeth  to  all  churches 
at  all  times.     But  with  any  such  partial  eye  to  respect  our- 
selves, and  by  cunning  to  make  those  things  seem  the  truest, 
which  are  the  fittest  to  serve  our  purpose,  is  a  thing  which  we 
neither  like  nor  mean  to  follow."  (iii.  x.  8.) 

The  distinction  is  broadly  drawn  by  Hooker  between  the 
Church   mystical   and  the   Church  visible.     Wisely  ignoring 
the   expression  *'  invisible  Church,"  he  expresses  that  which 
later  writers  mean  by  it,  when  he  describes  "  that  Church  of 
Christ,  which  we  properly  term  his  body  mysti- 
cal," as  being  necessarily  one,  and  not  to  be  sen-        ^j^^j  ^^^^ 
sibly   discerned    by  any   man,    inasmuch    as    the       visible. 
parts  thereof  are   some   in  heaven,  and  the  rest 
that  are  on  earth,  although  their  natural  persons  be  visible, 
we   do   not  discern    under  this   property,  whereby  they  are 
truly  and  infallibly  of  that  body.     Only  our  minds  by  intel- 
lectual conceit  are  able  to  apprehend,  that  such  a  real  body 
there   is,   a  body  collective,  because   it   containeth   an  huge 

*  Const.  Hist.  iv. 


246         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

multitude;  a  body  mystical,  because  the  mystery-  of  their  con- 
junction is  removed  altogether  from  sense.  Whatsoever  we 
read  in  Scripture  concerning  the  endless  love  and  the  saving 
mercy  which  God  showeth  towards  his  Church,  the  only  pro- 
per subject  thereof  is  tJiis  Church. 

"And  as  the  promises  belong  to  the  mystical  Church,  even 
so,  on  the  other  side,  when  we  read  of  any  duty  which  the 
Church  of  God  is  bound  unto,,  the  Church  whom  this  doth 
concern  is  a  sensibly  known  company.  And  this  visible  Church 
in  like  sort  is  but  one,  continued  from  the  first  beginning  of 
the  world  to  the  last  end  ;  .  .  .  being  divided  into  two  moie- 
ties, the  one  before,  the  other  since  the  corning  of  Christ,  .  .  . 
all  making  but  oiie  body!'  The  unit>'  of  this  visible  Church 
consists  in  "  outward  profession  of  those  things  which  super- 
naturally  appertain  to  the  ver}^  essence  of  Christianity,  and 
are  necessarily  required  in  every  particular  Christian  man.  .  .  . 
If  by  external  pjvfessim  men  be  Christians,  then  are  they  of 
the  visible  Church  of  Christ :  and  Christians  by  external  pro- 
fession they  are  all,  whose  mark  of  recognizance  hath  in  it 
those  things  which  we  have  mentioned,  yea,  although  they  be 
impious  idolaters,  wicked  heretics,  persons  excommunicable, 
yea,  and  cast  out  for  notorious  improbity.  Such  withal  we 
deny  not  to  be  the  imps  and  limbs  of  Satan,  even  as  long  as 
they  continue  such. 

"  For  lack  of  diligently  observing  the  difference,  first  be- 
tween the  Church  of  God  mystical  and  visible,  then  between 
the  visible  sound  and  corrupted,  sometimes  more,  sometimes 
less,  the  oversights  are  neither  few  nor  light  that  have  been 
committed."  (iii.,  c.  i.,  s.  2,  3,  4,  7.) 

While  thus  teaching  that  the  essential  unity  of  the   Church 

visible  consists  in,  and  is  known  by  an  external  profession  of 

Christianity,  without  reference  to  "  moral  righteousness  "  on 

the  part  of  any  of  its  members,  Hooker  further 

Church  and  .    ^    .  .  .  .  .        .1         -o      -^ 

State  one      ^namtams,  m  opposition    to    the    runtan  premise 

society.      — that  the  Church  and  the  State  are  distinct  and 

originally  independent  societies  —  that  the  Church 

existing   in   any  particular  country,   and  the   State,  are  one 


CHURCH     AND    STATE    ONE    SOCIETY.  247 

and  the  same  society,  contemplated  in  two  different  relations: 
'*  A  commonwealth  we  name  it  simply  in  regard  of  some 
regiment  or  policy  under  which  men  live;  a  Church  for  the 
truth  of  that  religion  which  we  profess.  .  .  .  When  we  oppose 
the  Church,  therefore,  and  the  commonwealth  in  a  Christian 
society,  we  mean  by  the  commonwealth  that  society  with 
relation  unto  all  the  public  affairs  thereof,  only  the  matter  of 
true  religion  excepted  ;  by  the  Church,  the  same  society  with 
only  reference  unto  the  matter  of  true  religion,  without  any 
other  affairs  besides ;  when  that  society,  which  is  both  a 
Church  and  a  commonwealth,  doth  flourish  in  those  things 
which  belong  unto  it  as  a  commonwealth,  we  then  say,  '  the 
commonwealth  doth  flourish  ; '  when  in  those  things  which 
concern  it  as  a  Church,  '  the  Church  doth  flourish ; '  when  in 
both,  then  *  the  Church  and  commonwealth  flourish  together.' " 
(viii.,  c.  i.,  s.  5.) 

It  was  by  thus  identifying  the  CJiurch  ivith  the  commonwealtJi 
that  Hooker  essayed  to  vindicate  the  prince's  supremacy  over 
the  Church.  But  as,  according  to  this  view,  every  member 
of  the  State  is  also  a  member  of  the  Church,  and  as  such  — 
according  to  Hooker's  theory  of  a  social  compact  —  entitled 
to  a  part  in  its  government,  (by  choice  of  pastors  or  other- 
wise,) Hooker  endeavors  to  show,  through  the  medium  of  the 
original  compact  of  civil  society,  that  the  sovereign  had  re- 
ceived this,  as  well  as  all  other  powers,  at  the  hands  of  the 
people.  "  Laws  being  made  among  us  are  not  by  any  of  us 
so  taken  or  interpreted,  as  if  they  did  receive  their  force  from 
power  which  the  prince  doth  communicate  unto  the  parlia- 
ment, or  unto  any  other  court  under  him,  but  from  power 
which  the  whole  body  of  the  realm  being  naturally  possessed 
with,  hath  by  free  and  deliberate  assent  derived  unto  him  that 
ruleth  over  them  so  far  forth  as  hath  been  declared ;  so  that 
our  laws  made  concerning  religion  do  take  originally  their 
essence  from  the  power  of  the  whole  realm  and  Church  of 
England."  Hooker's  theory  of  civil  government,  it  is  thus 
obvious,  is  absolutely  coincident  v/ith  that  of  Locke;  deriving 
the  origin  of  government,  as  it  does,  both  in  right  and  in  fact, 


248         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

from  a  primary  contract;  "  without  which  consent  there  were 
no  reason  that  one  should  take  upon  him  to  be  lord  or  judge 
over  another;  because  although  there  be,  according  to  the 
opinion  of  some  great  and  judicious  men,  a  kind  of  natural 
right  in  the  noble,  wise,  and  virtuous,  to  govern  them  which 
are  of  servile  disposition  ;  nevertheless,  for  the  manifestation 
of  this  their  right,  and  men's  more  peaceable  contentment  on 
both  sides,  the  assent  of  them  who  are  to  be  governed  seemeth 
necessary.  .  .  .  The  lawful  power  of  making  laws  to  command 
whole  politic  societies  of  men,  belongeth  so  properly  unto  the 
same  entire  societies,  that  for  any  prince  or  pote^itate  of  what 
kind  soever  upon  earth  to  exercise  the  same  of  himself,  and 
not  by  express  commission  immediately  and  personally  re- 
ceived from  God,  or  else  by  authority  received  at  first  from 
their  consent  upon  whose  persons  they  impose  laws,  it  is  no 
better  than  m.ere  tyranny.  Laws  they  are  not,  therefore, 
which  public  approbation  hath  not  made  so.  But  approba- 
tion not  only  they  give,  who  personally  declare  their  assent 
by  voice,  sign,  or  act;  but  also  when  others  do  it  in  their 
names,  by  right  originally,  at  the  least,  derived  from  them. 
As  in  parliaments,  councils,  and  the  like  assemblies,  although 
we  be  not  person'^Uy  ourselves  present,  notwithstanding  our 
assent  is  by  reason  of  other  agents  there  in  our  behalf  And 
what  we  do  by  others,  no  reason  but  that  it  should  stand  as 
our  deed,  no  less  effectually  to  bind  us,  than  if  ourselves  had 
done  it  in  person.  ...  In  all  societies  .  .  .  what  severally  each 
shall  be  bound  unto,  it  must  be  with  all  their  assents  ratified. 
Against  all  equity  it  were  that  a  man  should  suffer  detriment 
at  the  hands  of  men,  for  not  observing  that  which  he  never 
did  either  by  himself  or  others  mediately  or  immediately 
agree  unto.  ...  I  cannot  choose  but  highly  commend  their 
wisdom,  by  whom  the  foundation  of  the  (English)  common- 
wealth hath  been  laid;  wherein  though  no  manner  of  person 
or  cause  be  unsubject  unto  the  king's  power,  yet  so  is  the 
power  of  the  king  over  all,  and  in  all  limited,  that  unto  all  his 
proceedings  the  law  itself  is  a  rule.  The  axioms  of  our  regal 
government  are  these :  Lex  facit  re  gem  —  the  king's  grant  of 


EPISCOPACY    A     DIVINE    INSTITUTION.  249 

any  favor  made  contrary  to  the  law  is  void;  —  Rex  niliil  potest 
nisi  quod  jure  potest  —  what  power  the  king  hath  he  hath  it  by 
law :  the  bounds  and  limits  of  it  are  known,  the  entire  commu- 
nity giveth  general  order  by  lazv,  how  all  things  publicly  are  to 
be  done  ;  and  the  king  as  the  head  thereof,  the  highest  authority 
over  all,  causeth  according  to  the  same  law,  every  particular 
to  be  framed  and  ordered  thereby.  The  whole  body  politic 
maketh  laws,  which  laws  give  power  unto  the  king ;  and  the 
king  having  bound  himself  to  use  according  to  law  that  power, 
it  so  falleth  out  that  the  execution  of  the  one  is  accomplished 
by  the  other." 

It  is  thus  plain,  as  Hallam  has  pointed  out,  that  in  the  judg- 
ment of  Hooker, "  absolute  monarchy  is  both  pernicious  in  itself 
and  contrary  to  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  English  common- 
wealth." 

For  Episcopacy  Hooker  claims  a  divine  institution :  —  "A 
thousand  five  hundred  years  and  upward  the  Church  of  Christ 
hath  now  continued  under  the  sacred  regiment  of  bishops. 
Neither  for  so  long  hath  Christianity  been  ever 
planted  in  any  kingdom  throughout  the  world  P^^copacy 
but  with  this  kind  of  government  alone ;  which  to  institution. 
have  been  ordained  of  God,  I  am  for  mine  own 
part  even  as  resolutely  persuaded,  as  that  any  other  kind  of 
government  in  the  world  whatsoever  is  of  God.  ...  A  bishop 
is  a  minister  of  God,  unto  whom  with  permanent  continuance 
there  is  given  not  only  power  of  administering  the  word  and 
sacraments,  which  power  other  presbyters  have  ;  but  also  a 
further  power  to  ordain  ecclesiastical  persons,  and  a  power  of 
chiefty  in  government  over  presbyters  as  well  as  laymen,  a 
power  to  be  by  way  of  jurisdiction  a  pastor  even  to  pastors 
themselves.  .  .  .  The  first  bishops  in  the  Church  of  Christ  were 
his  blessed  apostles  ;  for  the  ofifice  whereunto  Matthias  was 
chosen  the  sacred  history  doth  term  iTjCxo-Tn^v,  an  episcopal 
office.  .  .  .  Bishops  they  were  at  large.  Apostles,  whether 
they  did  settle  in  any  one  certain  place,  as  James,  or  else  did 
otherwise,  as  the  apostle  Paul,  episcopal  authority  either  at 
large  or  with  restraint  they  had  and  exercised ;  and  all  others 


250         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

who  have  it  after  them  in  orderly  sort  are  their  lawful  suc- 
cessors, whether  they  succeed  in  any  particular  church,  where 
before  some  apostle,  as  Simon  succeeded  James  in  Jerusalem  ; 
or  else  be  otherwise  endued  with  the  same  kind  of  bishoply 
power,  although  it  be  not  where  any  apostle  before  hath  been. 
For  to  succeed  them,  is  after  them  to  have  that  episcopal  kind 
of  power  which  was  first  given  to  them.  .  .  .  From  whence 
it  may  haply  seem  to  have  grown,  that  they  whom  we  now 
call  bishops  were  usually  termed  at  the  first  apostles."  (vii.,  c. 
i.,  s.  4;  c.  ii.,  s.  3;  c.  iv.,  s.  i,  3.) 

"There  are  two  main  things  observed  in  every  ecclesiastical 
function,  power  to  exercise  the  duty  itself,  and  some  charge 
of  people  whereon  to  exercise  the  same ;  the  former  of  these 
is  received  at  the  hands  of  tJie  whole  visible  CatlwHc  CJmrch. 
For  it  is  not  one  particular  multitude  that  can  give  power,  the 
force  whereof  may  reach  far  and  wide  indefinitely,  as  the 
power  of  order  doth,  which  whoso  hath  once  received,  there 
is  no  action  which  belongeth  thereunto  but  he  may  exercise 
effectually  the  same  in  any  part  of  the  world  v/ithout  iterated 
ordination.  They  whom  the  whole  Church  hath  from  the  be- 
ginning used  as  her  agents  in  conferring  this  power,  are  not 
either  one  or  more  of  the  laity,  .  .  .  only  persons  ecclesiastical, 
and  they  in  place  of  calling,  superiors  both  unto  deacons  and 
unto  presbyters ;  only  such  persons  ecclesiastical  have  been 
authorized  to  ordain  both,  and  to  give  them  the  power  of 
order  in  the  name  of  the  v/hole  Church.  Such  were  the  apos- 
tles, such  was  Timothy,  such  was  Titus,  such  are  bishops. 
Not  that  there  is  between  these  no  difference,  but  that  they 
all  agree  in  pre-eminence  of  place  above  both  presbyters  and 
deacons,  whom  they  otherwise  might  not  ordain. 

"  Now  whereas  hereupon  some  do  infer,  that  no  ordination 

can  stand  but  only  such  as  is  made  by  bishops,  which  have 

had  their  ordination   likewise  by  other  bishops 

Ordination    j^gf^j-g  ^\^^^  till  we  come  to  the  very  apostles  of 

without  a  '  11 

bisliop.       Christ  themselves :  ...  to  this  we  answer,  that 
there  viay  be  sometimes  very  just  and  sufficient  reason 
to  allow  ordiuatlc7i  made  without  a  bishop. 


PRESBYTERIAN    ORDERS.  25  I 

"  The  whole  Church  visible  being  the  true  original  subject 
of  all  power,  it  hath  not  ordinarily  allowed  any  other  than 
bishops  alone  to  ordain  :  howbcit,  as  the  ordinary  course  is 
ordinarily  in  all  things  to  be  observed,  so  it  may  be  in  some 
cases  not  unnecessary  that  we  decline  from  the  ordinary  ways. 

"  I\Ien  may  be  extraordinarily,  yet  allowably,  two  ways  ad- 
mitted unto  spiritual  functions  in  the  Church.  One  is,  when 
God  himself  doth  of  himself  raise  up  any,  whose  labor  he  useth 
without  requiring  that  men  should  authorize  them  ;  but  then 
he  doth  ratify  their  calling  by  manifest  signs  and  tokens  him- 
self from  heaven.  Another  extraordinary  kind  of  vocation  is, 
when  tlic  exigence  of  necessity  doth  constrain  to  leave  the  usual 
ways  of  the  Church,  which  otherwise  we  would  willingly 
keep :  where  the  Church  must  needs  have  some  ordained,  and 
neither  hath  nor  can  have  possibly  a  bishop  to  ordain  ;  in  case 
of  such  necessity,  the  ordinary  institution  of  God  hath  given  often- 
times, and  jjiay  give,  place.  And  therefore  we  are  not  simply 
and  without  exception  to  urge  a  lineal  descent  from  the 
apostles  by  continued  succession  of  bishops  in  every  effectual 
ordination.  These  cases  of  inevitable  necessity  excepted,  none 
may  ordain  but  only  bishops."  (vii.,  c.  xiv.  lo,  ii.) 

"Although -I  see  that  certain  reformed  churches,  the  Scot- 
tish especially,  and  the  French,  have  not  that  which  best 
agreeth  with  the  sacred  Scripture,  I  mean  the  government  that 
is.  by  bishops,  .  .  .  this  their  defect  and  imperfec- 

T  1       1         1         1  •  1  1  •      Presbyterian 

tion  1  had  rather  lament  m  such  case  than  exagi-       orders 
tate,  considering  that  men  oftentimes,  without  any 
fault  of  their  own,  may  be  driven  to  want  that  kind  of  polity 
or  regiment  which  is  best."  (iii.,  c.  xi.  14.) 

To  break  the  force  of  this  admission,  Keble  calls  attention 
to  three  facts  :  first,  *'  the  exact  conditions  oi  extreme  necessity, 
univilling  deviation,  impossibility  of  procuring  a  bishop  to  or- 
dain, with  which  he  limits  his  concession  ;  second, 

4-1  •         -L.      \c  -r     i.1       •  i.    J    i.       Keble's  gloss. 

the    concession  itself  was  manifestly  inserted  to 
meet  the  case  of  the  foreign  Protestants,  not  gathered  by  the 
exercise  of  independent  judgment  from  the  nature  of  the  case 
or  the  judgment  of  antiquity;  third,  Hooker  might  feel  him- 


252         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

self  biassed  by  his  respect  for  existing  authority;  numbers 
having,  nearly  up  to  the  time  when  he  wrote,  been  admitted 
to  the  ministry  of  the  Church  of  England,  with  no  better  than 
Presbyterian  ordination." 

"At  the  same  time,"  as  Keble  is  here  obliged  to  confess, 
"  it  is  undeniable,  that  here  and  in  many  other  passages  we 
may  discern  a  marked  distinction  between  that  which  now 
perhaps  we  may  venture  to  call  the  school  of  Hooker,  and 
that  of  Laud,  Hammond,  and  Leslie,  in  the  two  next  genera- 
tions." But  the  distinction  is  at  once  reduced  to  a  miniimmi, 
in  these  characteristic  sentences  :  **  He,  as  well  as  they,  re- 
garded the  order  of  bishops  as  being  immediately  and  properly 
of  divine  right ;  he  as  well  as  they  laid  down  principles,  which, 
strictly  followed  up,  would  make  this  claim  exclusive.  But  he, 
in  common  with  most  of  his  contemporaries,  shrunk  from  the 
legitimate  result  of  his  own  premises,  the  rather,  as  tJie  fulness 
of  apostolical  authority  on  this  point  had  never  come,  ivithin  Jiis 
cognizance ;  whereas  the  next  generation  of  divines  entered 
on  the  subject,  fresh  front  the  discovery  of  the  gemnne  remains 
of  Ignatius  I  He  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  press  unreservedly, 
and  develop  in  all  its  consequences,  that  part  of  the  argument 
which  they,  taught  by  the  primitive  Church,  regarded  as  the 
most  vital  and  decisive :  the  necessity,  namely,  of  the  apostolical 
commission  to  the  derivation  of  sacramental  grace,  and  to  our 
mystical  communion  witJi  Christ.  Yet  on  the  whole,  consider- 
ing his  education  and  circumstances,  the  testimony  which  he 
bears  to  the  bolder  and  completer  view  of  the  divines  of  the 
seventeenth  century  is  most  satisfactory."  {Pref,  p.  xxxviii.) 

On  the  point  here  made  of  Hooker's  want  of  acquaintance 
with  "the  fulness  of  apostolical  authority,"  as  developed  in 
the  genuine  remains  of  Ignatius,  it  may  suffice  to  remark  that 
the  Epistles  of  Ignatius,  in  the  larger  Greek  recension,  were 
familiar  to  Hooker  and  Hooker's  contemporaries,  Bilson  and 
Field,  as  appears  from  quotation  and  reference  in  their  works ; 
and  it  cannot  be  shown  that  either  he  or  they  entertained  a 
doubt  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  Ignatian  testimony  to  the 
divine  institution  of  Episcopacy,  as  that  testimony  came  before 
them  in  the  Pseudo-Ignatius. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

FiKLD  :  Of  the  Church  —  Definition  —  Avand  of  the  Church  —  Notes  — 
(  )rdi:rs  —  Presbyterial  Ordination  —  Convocation  of  Canterbury; 
Proceedings  in  1604-1606  ;  Canons  of  —  Bishop  Overall's  Convocation 
Book. 

HOOKER'S    great   work,    fitly    following    Bilson's   Prr- 
pctual  Govcmmcjit,  was  no  less  worthily  followed  by 
"  the  very  learned  "  Field's  treatise,  Of  tJie  CJiurcJi,  Five  Books. 

FNo.  140.1     The  hig-h  place  which  this  work  has 

■-  ,,,r  ^         ^  r  ■  ,i-        •  ,       Richaid  Field, 

ever  held  trom  the  day  ot  its  publication  to  the        ^^^^ 

present,   seems   to   have  been   anticipated  by   its 

author,  "  when,  in  reply  to  a  friend  who  would  have  dissuaded 

him  from  the  undertaking,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  inviting 

a  controversy  of  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  foresee  the  end, 

he  said,  *  /  will  so  write  as  they  sliall  have  no  great  mind  to 

anszver  mey     "This  one  volume,"  writes  Coleridge   to  his 

son,  "  thoroughly  understood  and  appropriated,  will  place  you 

in  the  highest  ranks  of  doctrinal  Church  of  England  divines, 

(of  such  as  now  are,)  and  in  no  mean  rank  as  a  true  doctrinal 

historian."     In  the  Romish  controversy  this  work  stands  as 

the  counterpart  to  Hooker's  in  the  Puritan  contest. 

Of  the  five  books  into  which  this  treatise  is  divided,  the 
first  treats  of  "  the  name,  nature,  and  definition  of  the 
Church ;  and  tJie  different  sorts  of  them  that  do  pertain  unto 
it ;  the  second,  of  the  Notes  of  the  Church  ;  the  tJiird  showeth 
which  is  the  True  Church  demonstrated  by  those  notes ;  the 
fourth  is  of  the  Privileges  of  the  Church  ;  the  fifths  of  the 
divers  degrees,  orders,  and  callings  of  those  men  to  whom  the 
government  of  the  Church  is  committed." 

Field  defines  the  Church  as  "  the  multitude  and  number  of 
those   whom  Almighty   God   sevcreth    from   the   rest   of  the 

253 


254        THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

world  by  the  work  of  his  grace,  and  calleth  to  the  participa- 
^^  ^  . .         tion  of  eternal  happiness,  by  the   knowledge  of 

Definition.  .  ,  .  .         "^  .        ^  , 

such  supernatural  verities  as  concerning  their 
everlasting  good  He  hath  revealed  in  Christ  his  Son,  and 
such  other  precious  and  happy  means  as  He  hath  appointed 
to  further  and  set  forward  the  work  of  their  salvation.  So 
that  it  is  the  work  of  grace,  and  the  heavenly  call,  that  give 
being  to  the  Church."  (i.  vi.)  "  They  that  are  partakers  of 
the  heavenly  calling,  and  sanctified  by  the  profession  of  di- 
vine truth,  and  the  use  of  the  means  of  salvation,  are  of  very 
divers  sorts;"  first,  they  "that  profess  the  truth  delivered  by 
Christ,  but  not  wholly  and  mtirely,  as  heretics ;  "  second,  they 
"that  profess  the' whole  saving  truth,  but  not  in  unity,  as 
schismatics ;  third,  they  *'  that  profess  the  whole  saving  truth 
in  unity,  but  not  in  sincerity,  and  singleness  of  a  good  and 
sanctified  mind,  as  hypocrites  and  wicked  men,  not  outwardly 
divided  from  the  people  of  God;"  d^nd  fourth,  they  "that  pro- 
fess the  whole  saving  truth  in  unity,  and  sincerity  of  a  good 
and  sanctified  heart."  {Id.,  vii.) 

"The  name  of  the  orthodox  Church  is  applied  to  distinguish 
right-believing  Christians  from  heretics ;  the  name  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  men  holding  the  faith  in  unity,  from  schis- 
matics ;  the  name  of  the  invisible  Church,  *  the  Church  of  the 
first-born,  whose  names  are  written  in  heaven,'  the  mystical 
body  of  Christ  —  to  distinguish  the  elect  from  the  rest.  .  .  . 
When  we  say,  therefore,  none  but  the  elect  of  God  are  of  the 
Church ;  we  mean  not  that  others  are  not  at  all,  nor  in  any 
sort  of  the  Church,  but  that  they  are  not  principally,  fully, 
and  absolutely ;  —  not  of  that  especial  number  who  partake 
and  communicate  in  the  most  perfect  work,  force,  and  effect 
of  saving  grace.  This  was  the  meaning  of  Wiclyffe,  Huss, 
and  others,  who  define  the  Church  to  be  the  multitude  of  the 
elect."  (vi.  vii.) 

Field  indorses  the  distinction  of  Augustine  between  "them 
that  are  in  the  Church  and  them  that  are  of  the  Church : 
*  Some  are  in  such  sort  in  the  house  of  God,  that  they  also  are 
the  house  of  God ;  and  some  are  so  in  the  house  of  God,  that 


ORDERS.  255 

they  pertain  not  to  the  frame  and  fabric  of  it.  .  .  .  Of  them 
that  are   in  the  Church  there  are  three  sorts  :  some  only  in 
external  profession  ;  some  in  profession  and  affec- 
tion ;  some  in  profession  and  affection,  with  never  ^^^  ^^!  Church 

......  ,  ,  and  of\t. 

altermg  resolution,  jommg  themselves  to  the  com- 
pany of  believers,  and  having  their  hearts  knit  unto  God  for- 
ever. [Id.,  ix.)  Hence  it  cometh  that  we  say  there  is  a  visible 
and  invisible  Church,  not  meaning  to  make  two  distinct 
churches,  as  our  adversaries  falsely  and  maliciously  charge 
us,  though  the  form  of  words  may  serve  to  insinuate  some 
such  thing,  but  to  distinguish  the  divers  considerations  of  the 
same  Church  ;  which  though  it  be  visible  in  respect  of  the  pro- 
fession of  supernatural  verities  revealed  in  Christ,  use  of  holy 
sacraments,  order  of  ministy,  etc.,  yet  in  respect  of  the  benefits 
of  saving  grace  wherein  only  the  elect  do  communicate,  it  is 
invisible y  (x.) 

Of  the  NOTES  of  the  Church  Field  treats  with  great  fulness 
and  exhaustive  learning,  fairly  confronting  the  great  contem- 
porary Romish  advocates,  Bellarmine  and  Stapleton.  "  The 
notes  which  perpetually  distinguish  the  true  Cath- 
olic Church  from  all  other  societies  of  men  and 
professions  of  religion,  are  three :  First,  the  entire  profession 
of  those  supernatural  verities,  which  God  hath  revealed  in 
Christ  his  Son  :  Secondly,  the  use  of  such  ceremonies  and 
sacraments  as  he  hath  instituted,  etc. :  Thirdly,  an  union  of 
men  in  this  profession  .  .  .  under  lawful  pastors  and  guides." 
(ii.,  c.  ii.) 

On  the  subject  of  orders.  Field  and  Hooker  are  perfectly 
at  one.  To  the  question,  "  Whether  the  power  of  ordination 
be  so  essentially  annexed  to  the  order  of  bishops,  that  none 
but  bishops  may  in  any  case  ordain?  "  Field  makes  answer  : 
*'  The  power  of  sacred  order,  that  is,  the  power  and 
authority  to  intermeddle  with  things  pertaining 
to  the  service  of  God,  and  to  perform  acts  .  .  .  tending  to  the 
eternal  good  of  men,  is  equal  and  the  same  in  all  those  zvhom 
we  call  presbyters  :  —  and  that  ojily  for  order's  sake,  and  the 
preservation  of  peace,  there  is  a  limitation  of  the  nse  and  exer- 


256         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

CISC  of  the  same.  Hereunto  agree  all  the  best  learned  amongst 
the  Romanists  themselves,  freely  confessing  that  that  wherein  a 
bishop  excelleth  a  presbyter,  is  not  a  distinct  and  higher  order, 
or  power  of  order,  but  a  kind  of  dignity  and  office  or  employ- 
ment only."  Their  proof  is  this :  "  A  presbyter  that  was 
never  ordained  deacon,  may  notwithstanding  perform  all  acts 
pertaining  to  the  diaconate,  because  the  higher  order  doth 
always  imply  in  it  the  lower  and  inferior,  in  an  eminent  de- 
gree :  but  a  bishop  ordained  per  saltnni,  that  never  had  the 
ordination  of  a  presbyter,  can  neither  consecrate  and  admin- 
ister the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  body  ;  nor  ordain  a  presby- 
ter, himself  being  none  ;  nor  do  any  act  peculiarly  pertaining 
to  presbyters.  Whereby  it  is  most  evident,  that  that  wherein 
a  bishop  excelleth  a  presbyter,  is  not  a  distinct  power  of  order, 
but  an  eminence  and  dignity  only,  especially  yielded  to  one 
above  all  the  rest  of  the  same  rank,  for  order  sake,  and  to  pre- 
serve the  unity  and  peace  of  the  Church.  Hence  it  followeth, 
that  many  things  which  in  some  cases  presbyters  may  lawfully 
do  are  peculiarly  reserved  unto  bishops,  as  Hierome  noteth  : 
'  Rather  for  the  honor  of  their  ministry  than  the  necessity  of 
any  law.'  *  And  therefore,  we  read,  that  presbyters  in  some 
places,  and  at  some  times,  did  impose  hands,  and  confirm  such  as 
were  baptized.  .  .  .  And  who  knoweth  not,  that  all  presbyters 
in  cases  of  necessity  may  absolve  and  reconcile  penitents;  a 
thing  in  ordinary  course  appropriated  unto  bishops  ?  And 
zvJiy  not,  by  the  same  reason,  ordain  presbyters  and  deacons  in 
cases  of  like  necessity  ?  .  .  .\{  they  (bishops)  become  enemies 
to  God  and  true  religion,  in  case  of  such  necessity  as  the  care 
and  government  of  the  Church  is  devolved  to  the  presbyters 
remaining  Catholic  and  being  of  a  better  spirit,  so  the  duty 
of  ordaining  such  as  are  to  assist  or  succeed  them  in  the 
work  of  the  ministry  pertains  to  them  likewise.  .  .  .  There  is  no 
reason  to  be  given,  but  that  in  case  of  necessity, 
"^^^ordaTn"^^^  wherein  all  bishops  were  extinguished  by  death, 
or,  being  fallen  into  heresy,  should  refuse  to  or- 
dain any  to  serve  God  in  his  true  worship,  but  that  presby- 

*  Contra  Lucif, 


CONVOCATION    OF    CANTERBURY.  25/ 

ters,  as  they  may  do  all  other  acts,  whatsoever  special  chal- 
lenge bishops  in  ordinary  course  make  upon  them,  might  do 
this  also.  IV/io,  tlicn,  dar^  condemn  all  those  zvorthy  ministers 
of  God  that  were  ordained  by  presbyters,  in  sundry  churches  of 
the  world,  at  such  times  as  bishops,  in  those  parts  where  they 
lived,  opposed  themselves  against  the  truth  of  God,  and  per- 
secuted such  as  professed  it  ?  Surely  the  best  learned  in  the 
Church  of  Rome  in  former  times  did  not  pronounce  all  ordi- 
nations of  this  nature  to  be  void.  For,  not  only  Armachanus, 
but,  as  it  appeareth  by  Alexander  of  Hales,  many  learned  men 
in  his  time  and  before,  were  of  opinion  that  in  some  cases 
presbyters  may  give  orders,  .  .  though  to  do  so,  not  being 
urged  by  extreme  necessity,  cannot  be  excused  from  over-great 
boldness  and  presumption."  (iii.,  c.  xxxix.) 

No  inconsiderable  light  is  thrown,  from  time  to  time,  upon 
the  state  of  opinion  in  the  Church  of  England,  by  the  proceed- 
ings in  the  Convocation  of  Canterbury,  a  body  which  appears 
to  have  assumed  its  present  form  about  the  close 
of  the  fourteenth  century.  Summoned  by  the  Convocation 
archbishop's  writ,  under  the  king's  direction,  the  ^ ^^  ^^^ 
convocation  regularly  assembles  at  the  same  time 
with  the  Parliament,  to  which  it  bears  analogy,  both  in  its 
constituent  parts  and  in  its  primary  functions.  It  consists, 
since  the  Reformation,  of  the  suffragan  bishops,  forming  the 
upper  house ;  of  the  deans,  archdeacons,  a  proctor  or  proxy 
for  each  chapter,  and  two  from  each  diocese,  elected  by  the 
parochial  clergy,  who  constitute  together  the  lower  house. 
Before  the  Reformation,  in  addition  to  the  power  of  granting 
subsidies  to  the  crown,  it  possessed  the  right  of  enacting 
ecclesiastical  canons ;  a  right  virtually  surrendered  by  its  re- 
cognition of  the  royal  supremacy.  It  was  now  deprived  by 
statute  of  the  power  to  enact  new  canons  without  the  king's 
license  ;  and,  even  subject  to  this  condition,  its  power  is  further 
limited  by  later  acts  of  Parliament.  For  more  than  a  century 
this  assembly  had  little  business  but  to  grant  subsidies,  and 
this  practice  was  silently  discontinued  in  1664;  and  from  this 
17 


I 


258  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

time  the  clergy  have  been  taxed  at  the  same  rate  and  in  the 
same  manner  with  the  laity. 

The  proceedings  of  convocation  of  most  interest  and  im- 
portance, as  illustrating  the  state  of  feeling  and  opinion  on 
Church  questions  in  England  during  a  most  eventful  period, 
are  those  of  the  years  1604-6,  1640,  and  1700.  Some  account 
of  these,  severally,  may  not  therefore  be  beside  our  purpose. 

The  see  of  Canterbury  being  now  vacant,  Bancroft,  Bishop 

of  London,  presided  in  convocation  by  commission.     In  the 

eleventh   session    the   president  delivered  to  the 

Canons,  r     1        1  1  ,         1        /- 

prolocutor  of  the  lower  house  a  book  of  canons, 
^^'  which,  after  considerable  discussion  in  both  houses, 
were  unanimously  agreed  upon.  These  canons,  in  number 
one  hundr'cd  and  forty -oiic ,  form  the  only  body  of  ecclesiastical 
law  by  which  the  Anglican  Church  is  still  governed.  Accord- 
ing to  Collier,  they  were  collected  and  arranged  by  Bancroft, 
who  selected  them  from  "  the  articles,  injunctions,  and  synod- 
ical  acts  passed  and  published  in  the  reigns  of  Edward  VI. 
and  Queen  Elizabeth,"  to  which  some  new  ones  were  added. 
Not  having  been  ratified  by  act  of  Parliament,  though  sanc- 
tioned by  the  royal  assent,  they  are  held  not  to  bind  the  laity 
proprio  vigore,  that  is,  not  by  virtue  of  their  own  enactment, 
but  only  so  far  as  they  confirm  already  existing  law, 

TYiQ  Jirst  canon  asserts  the  royal  supremacy  in  causes  eccle- 
siastical, and  requires  all  the  clergy  to  make  a  public  declara- 
tion of  it  at  least  once  a  year.  The  second  is  also  directed 
against  impugners  of  the  supremacy;  and  the  ////;?/ affirms  the 
Church  of  England  to  be  a  true  and  apostolic  Church,  The 
next  five  relate  to  the  impugners  of  the  worship,  the  articles, 
the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church,  "  the  government  of 
the  Church  of  England  under  his  majesty  by  archbishops, 
bishops,  deans,  archdeacons,"  etc.,  and  the  ordination  service ; 
and  the  remaining  four  canons  of  this  first  division  (set  aside 
by  the  Act  of  Toleration)  are  directed  against  schismatics  and 
maintainers  of  conventicles. 

The  second  division,  entitled  Of  Divine  Sejince  a?id  Admifi- 
istration  of  the  Sacraments,  comprises  eighteen  canons.     The 


CANONS.  259 

thirteenth  enjoins  the  celebration  of  divine  service  on  Sundays 
and  other  holy-days,  and  not  only  attendance  on  public  wor- 
ship, but  also  the  visiting  of  the  poor  and  sick,  and  the  use  of 
all  godly  and  sober  conversation.  The  fourteenth  enjoins  the 
use,  on  Sundays  and  holy-days,  of  the  prescript  form  of  divine 
service.  The  fifteenth  directs  the  Litany  to  be  read  on  Wed- 
nesdays and  Fridays.  The  eighteenth  enjoins  that  "  when  in 
the  time  of  divine  service  the  Lord  Jesus  shall  be  mentioned, 
due  and  lowly  reverence  shall  be  done  by  all  persons  present, 
as  it  hath  been  accustomed  "  The  thirtieth  explains  the  law- 
ful use  of  the  cross  in  baptism. 

The  third  division,  entitled  Ministers,  tJicir  ordijiation,  fric- 
tion, and  charge,  contains  forty-seven  canons,  relating  to  the 
times  for  ordination,  the  titles,  qualifications,  and  examination 
of  ministers.  The  thirty-first  appoints  **  for  the  making  of 
ministers"  the  Sundays  immediately  following  the  Ember 
v.^eeks ;  and  the  thirty-second  that  none  be  made  deacon  and 
minister  both  in  one  day.  The  thirty-sixth  requires  subscrip- 
tion to  three  articles  affirming  the  royal  supremacy,  the  scrip- 
tural character  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  of  the 
thirty-nine  articles.  The  body  of  the  canons  under  this  division 
relate  to  a  great  variety  of  subjects  :  institution,  simony,  plu- 
ralities, residence,  beneficed  preachers,  beneficed  men  not 
preachers.  When  these  canons  were  framed  many  were  or- 
dained to  the  ministry  who  were  not  qualified  to  preach ;  and 
to  meet  the  case  of  these  persons  the  Homilies  had  been  pre- 
pared, while  special  license  was  given  to  those  who  were 
qualified. 

The  last  division  of  the  canons,  the  only  one  calling  for 
further  remark,  relates  to  the  authority  of  synods.  A  national 
synod  is  named  tJie  Chnrch  representative,  and  it  is  declared 
that  "  the  sacred  synod  of  this  nation,  in  the  name  of  Christ 
and  by  the  king's  authority  assembled,  is  the  true  Church 
of  England  by  representation;"  to  which  body  it  is,  there- 
fore, alone  competent  (we  may  add,  though  the  canons  do 
not,  but  leave  it  to  be  inferred,)  to  legislate  for  the  whole 
Churcii  of  England. 


26o         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

The  convocation  of  the  following  year  is  rendered   note- 
worthy by  its  sanction  of  Bishop  Overall's  Co?ivocatio?i  Book, 
the  discussion  of  which  was  the  great  business  of  the  assembly. 
The  object  of  Overall  in  its  compilation,  it  would 

1605,  1606.  ^^  11.11  1-      •  -1  r  1    • 

appear,  was  to  establish  the  divme  right  of  kings 
and  bishops,  in  opposition  to  the  divine  right  of  any  bishop 
or  bishops  to  be  above  kings,  and  in  opposition  to  the  divine 

right  of  the  Presbyterian  discipline."  Though 
jis  op    vei-  sQiej^nly  sanctioned  by  the  Church  in  convoca- 

alls  Convoca-  •'  "^  .  . 

tion  Book,  tion,  the  book,  on  account  of  its  not  having  re- 
ceived the  royal  confirmation,  is  held  as  possess- 
ing no  legal  authority ;  yet  there  is  no  room  to  doubt  that  it 
was  designed  to  be  received  as  an  authentic  exposition  of  the 
mind  of  the  Anglican  Church  on  the  subjects  of  which  it  treats. 

Some  of  its  more  important  statements  demand  our  atten- 
tion :  The  three  creeds  are  affirmed  as  containing  a  summary 
of  Christian  truth  ;  while  the  creed  of  Pope  Pius  IV.  is  repudi- 
ated. The  eleventh  chapter  of  the  second  book  has  this  title : 
"  That  there  is  no  more  necessity  of  one  visible  head  of  the 
Catholic  Church  than  of  one  visible  monarch  over  all  the 
world;"  and  contains  the  following  important  statements: 
"  It  is  certain  and  manifest,  that  as  the  Catholic  Church  is 
resembled  in  the  Scriptures  to  an  host  well  ordered,  to  a 
human  body,  to  a  kingdom,  to  a  flock  of  sheep,  to  an  house, 
and  to  a  ship;  so  Christ  only  is  intended  thereby  to  be  her 
only  general,  her  only  head,  her  only  king,  her  only  shep- 
herd, her  only  householder,  her  only  pilot.  Neither  can  any 
other  thing  be  enforced  from  the  words  mentioned  of  one 
faith  and  one  baptism,  but  that  as  we  are  only  justified  through 
a  lively  faith  in  Christ,  so  there  is  but  one  baptism  ordained, 
whereby  we  have  our  first  entrance  into  his  spiritual  kingdom, 
and  are  made  particular  members  of  his  Catholic  Church." 
The  third  and  last  book  contains  a  sketch  of  the  papal  usurpa- 
tions to  the  time  of  the  full  establishment  of  the  popedom. 
This  work,  preserved  in  manuscript  for  eighty-four  years,  was 
first  given  to  the  world  by  Archbishop  Sancroft  in  1690,  pro- 
fessedly with  a  view  to  promote  the  non-juring  interest.  In  one 


BISHOP  overall's  convocation  book.        261 

remarkable  instance  it  produced  the  directly  opposite  effect. 
Dr.  William  Sherlock,  who  shared  Bancroft's  conscientious 
scruples  respecting  allegiance,  and  with  him  had  refused  to 
take  the  oaths  to  the  new  government,  read  the  book,  and 
found  in  it  a  passage  in  decisive  opposition  to  the  non-juring 
views.  The  doctrine  here  taught,  and  embodied,  moreover, 
in  a  canon,  is  to  the  effect  that  "  a  government,  which  had 
originated  in  rebellion,  ought,  when  thoroughly  settled,  to  be 
considered  as  ordained  by  God,  and  as  such  to  be  obeyed 
alike  by  clergy  and  laity."  Sherlock,  "  in  influence  and  repu- 
tation, though  not  in  rank,  the  foremost  man  among  the  non- 
jurors, read,  and  was  convinced.  His  venerable  mother  the 
Church  had  spoken  ;  and  he,  with  the  docility  of  a  child, 
accepted  her  decree."  *  It  is  generally  believed,  however,  that 
the  Convocation  Book  only  furnished  Sherlock  with  "  a  pre- 
text for  doing  what  he  had  already  made  up  his  mind  to  do. 
His  passions  and  prejudices  had  led  him  into  an  error  which 
he  determined  to  recant;  and  it  cost  him  less  to  say  that  his 
opinion  had  been  changed  by  newly-discovered  evidence  than 
that  he  had  formed  a  wrong  judgment  with  all  the  materials 
for  the  forming  of  a  right  judgment  before  him."  f 

*  Macaulay,  Hist.,  iv.  41,  sij.  f  Ibid.     Lathbu/y,  Hist.  Convoc.  336. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

JoHJ<  Robinson,  "the  Father  of  Congregationalism"  :  Baillie's  Account 
OF  Him  —  Catechism  Concerning  Church  Government  —  Definition  — 
Notes  —  Officers  —  Calderwood's  Altar  of  Damascus  —  Bishop  Dave- 
nant's  Assertion  of  the  Protestant  Definition  of  the  Church 
against  Bellarmine;  of  the  Invisible  Church;  of  Degrees  in  the 
Ministry;  of  Presbyterial  Ordination  —  Lord  Chancellor  Bacon: 
"Considerations  on  Church  Government," 

JOHN    ROBINSON,    "the    Father   of  Indcpendentism;'    is 
described  by  the  graphic  pen  of  Baillie,  the  champion  of 
Presbytery,  (1645,)  as  a  "  supporter  of  languishing  Brown- 
ism,  in  its  dying  days  ;  the  most  learned,  polished,  and  modest 
spirit  that    ever  that  sect    enjoyed:    it  had  been 
character  of   ^ruly  a  marvel,"  he  adds,  "  if  such  a  man  had  gone 
Robinson,     on  to  the  end  a  rigid  separatist.     Having  gone 
,  over  from  England  to  Leyden,  with  a  separate  con- 

gregation, he  wrote  for  a  time  very  handsome  apol- 
ogies and  justifications  of  that  evil  way ;  but  Dr.  Ames  and 
Master  Parker,  compassionating  the  man,  and  pitying  that  so 
excellent  parts  should  be  so  ill  employed,  labored  him  so  by 
conferences  and  letters,  that  there  was  great  appearance,  if 
his  days  had  continued,  he  might  have  proved  a  happy  instru- 
ment for  the  total  abolition  of  that  schism.  But  God  was 
pleased  to  take  him  away  in  the  beginning  of  his  good  work. 
"  He  came  back  indeed  the  one  half  of  the  way;  he  ruined 
the  rigid  separation,  and  was  the  author  of  a  semi-separatism, 
printing  in  his  later  times  against  his  former  books,  the  law- 
fulness of  communicating  with  the  Church  of  P^ngland  in  the 
word  and  prayer,  albeit  not  in  the  sacraments  and  discipline  : 
this  was  a  fair  bridge,  at  least  a  fair  arch  of  a  bridge  for  union; 

but  the  man  being  removed  by  death  before  he  could  perfect 

262 


ON    CHURCH     GOVERNMENT.  263 

what  he  had  begun,  his  new  doctrine,  though  it  was  destruc- 
tive to  his  old  sect,  became  an  occasion  of  a  new  one  not  very 
good.  It  was  the  womb  and  seed  of  that  lamentable  Inde- 
pendency which  in  Old  and  New  England  hath  been  the  foun- 
tain of  many  evils.  As  for  the  old  Brownists,  their  number 
is  but  very  small,  and  their  way  is  become  contemptible  not 
only  to  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  but  to  their  own  children 
also  ;  even  they  begin  to  heap  coals  of  contumelies  upon  their 
parents'  heads,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  elogies  which  both 
Master  Cotton  and  the  five  apologists  are  pleased  to  give  them 
in  print.  Yea,  so  much  are  the  children  ashamed  of  their 
fathers,  that  they  usually  take  it  for  a  contumely  to  be  called 
after  their  name.  No  Independent  will  take  it  well  at  any  man's 
hand,  to  be  called  a  Brozvnist  either  in  whole  or  in  the 
smallest  part."  [Dissuasive,  p.  17.) 

The  writings  of  Robinson  [No.  153,]  furni.sh  the  most  au- 
thentic exposition  of  the  Independent  scheme  of 
polity  ;  and  among  these  the  tract  entitled  A  Bi'ief    Government 
Catechism  concerning  Church  Government  may  be 
taken  as  giving  it  in  the  most  satisfactory  form  : 

**  What  is  the  Church  ?  A  company  of  faithful  and  holy 
people,  with  their  seed,  called  by  the  word  of  God  into  public 
covenant  with  Christ  and  amongst  themselves  for  mutual 
fellowship  in  the  use  of  all  the  means  of  God's  glory  and 
their  salvation. 

"  A  church  consists  of  such  a  number  as  may  ordinarily  meet 
together  in  one  place  for  the  worship  of  God  and  sanctifica- 
tion  of  the  Lord's  day. 

"  But  are  not  hypocrites  mingled  with  the  faithful  in  the 
Church  ? 

"  None  ought  to  be  by  the  word  of  God,  and  where  such 
are,  they  are  not  truly  added  by  the  Lord  to  the  Church, 
but  do  creep  in  through  their  own  hypocrisy,  and  not  without 
the  Church's  sin  also,  if  they  may  be  discerned  to  be  such. 

"  How  prove  you  the  seed  of  the  faithful  to  be  of  the  Church 
with  them  ? 

"  By  the  covenant  which  God  made  with  Abraham  and  his 


264         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

seed,  which  was  the  covenant  of  the  gospel,  and  confirmed  in 
Christ ;  the  seal  thereof,  circumcision,  being  the  seal  of  the 
righteousness  of  faith. 

"What  are  the  essential  marks  of  the  Church? 

**  Faith  and  order,  as  the  Church  in  them  may  be  seen,  and 

beheld   to  walk    in  Christ  Jesus,  whom  she  hath    received. 

Faith   professed  in  word  and  deed,  showing  the 

matter  to  be  true ;  and  order  in  the  holy  things 

of  God,  showing  the  forms  to  be  true;  which  are  the  two 

essential  parts  of  the  Church. 

"Are  not  the  preaching  of  the  word  and  administering  of 
the  sacraments  certain  marks  of  the  true  Church  ? 

"  No,  for  the  word  may,  and  that  rightly,  be  preached  to 
assemblies  of  unbelievers  for  their  conversion,  as  may  the 
sacraments  also  (though  unjustly)  be  administered  unto  them, 
and  so  be  made  lying  signs.  Besides,  the  true  Church  may 
for  a  time  want  the  use  of  divers  ordinances  of  God,  but  hath 
always  right  unto  them ;  as  may  also  the  false  church  usurp 
and  abuse  them,  but  without  right. 

"  How  many  are  the  officers  of  ministry  in  the  Church  ? 
"  Five,  besides  the  extraordinary  officers  of  apostles,  pro- 
phets, and  evangelists,  for  the  first  planting  of  the  churches, 
which   are   ceased,   with   their   extraordinary    gifts.      Those 
officers  be,  I.  The  pastor,  (exhorter,)  to  whom  is 
(>.J^^^        given  the  gift  of  wisdom  for  exhortation.     2.  The 
teacher,  to  whom  is  given  the  gift  of  knowledge 
for  doctrine.     3.  The  governing  elder,  who  is  to  rule  with  dili- 
gence.    4.  The  deacon,  who  is  to  administer  the  holy  treasure 
with  simplicity.     5.  The  widow  or  deaconess,  who  is  to  attend 
the  sick  and  impotent  with  compassion  and  cheerfulness. 

"  By  whom  are  these  officers  to  have  their  outward  calling  ? 
By  the  Church  whereof  they  are  members  for  the  present,  and 
to  which  they  are  to  administer. 

"  Is  this  outward  calling  of  simple  necessity  for  a  true  church- 
officer?  Yea,  as  for  the  magistrate  in  the  city  and  common- 
wealth, or  steward  in  the  family,  without  which  they  usurp 


PROTESTANT     DEFINITION.  265 

their  places,  how  excellent  soever,  whether  in  their  gifts  or 
works."  {JVor^'S,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  427-31.) 

In  Scotland,  the  prolonged  debate  concerning  episcopacy 
was  opened  by  the  publication  of  Calderwood's  Dc  Rcgiviine 
Ecclcsuu  Scoticancs  brcvis  Rclatio.  [No.  168.]  This 
was  followed,  after  two  years,  by  a  reply  from  the 
pen  of  Archbishop  Spotswoode,  entitled  Rcfiitatio  Libclli  dc 
Rcgiviiiic  EcclcsicB  Scoticancs,  [No.  169.]  Calderwood  rejoined 
in  a  noted  work  bearinc:  the  title  of  TJic  Altar  of 

^        .  .  Altar  of 

Damascus,  or  the  Pattern  of  the  English  Hierarchy    ^ 

'  y  <b  J'     Damascus. 

and  Church  Policy  obtruded  npon  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land. The  allusion  in  the  title  is  to  the  incident 
recorded  in  the  Second  Book  of  Kings,  chap.  xvi.  10-16:  "And 
King  Ahaz  went  to  Damascus,  .  .  .  and  saw  an  altar  that  was  at 
Damascus :  and  King  Ahaz  sent  to  Urijah  the  priest  the  fashion 
of  the  altar,  and  the  pattern  of  it,  according  to  all  the  work- 
manship thereof.  And  Urijah  the  priest  built  an  altar  accord- 
ing to  all  that  King  Ahaz  had  sent  from  Damascus,"  etc. 

This  work,  which  appeared  two  years  later,  in  a  greatly 
enlarged  form,  in  Latin,  (Altare  Damascenuni,)  [No.  170,]  is  re- 
garded by  the  friends  of  parity  in  the  ministry  as  one  of  the 
very  ablest  defences  of  their  system ;  containing,  as  it  does,  a 
learned  and  elaborate  discussion,  from  the  Presbyterian  point 
of  view,  of  the  leading  points  relating  to  Church  order  and 
ritual,  in  dispute,  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
between  Canterbury  and  Geneva. 

The  writings  of  Bishop  Davenant  [No.  186]  on  the  subject 
of  the  Church,  if  estimated   according   to  their  weight  and 
worth,  are  to  be   assigned   the  highest  place  among  those 
of  contemporary  theologians.     As   belonging  to 
the   ante-Laudian   period   they  here   claim   some 
attention.     And,  first,  of  "  the  holy  Catholic  Church  which 
we  believe,"  Davenant,  controverting  Bellarmine's 
well-known   definition:   The  Catholic  Church  is  a     ^xt^yy\[\Q^ 
body  of  men  united  in  the  profession  of  the  same  Chris- 
tian faith  and  participation  in  the  same  sacraments,  under  the 


266         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

government  of  laivful  pastors,  determines  thus  :  "  From  this 
definition  it  is  evident  that  three  things  only  are  required  for 
constituting  the  Church  CathoHc  —  namely,  outward  profes- 
sion of  the  faith,  outward  participation  in  the  sacraments,  and 
outward  subjection  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  In  whomsoever 
these  externals  are  found,  although  they  should  not  be  pos- 
sessed of  any  virtue,  or  any  gift  of  internal  grace  ;  although 
they  should  be  reprobate,  wicked  or  hypocrites,  yet  are  they, 
upon  the  authority  of  Bellarmine,*  true  members  of  the  holy 
Catholic  Church.  We,  on  the  contrary,  insist  that  Christians 
do  certainly  become  members  of  particular  churches,  such, 
for  example,  as  the  Roman,  the  Anglican,  or  the  Galilean ; 
they  also  become  presiunptive  members,  if  we  may  so  speak, 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  by  outward  profession,  communion, 
and  subjection  under  legitimate  pastors ;  yet  do  not  become 
true  members  of  the  holy  Catholic  Church,  which  we  believe, 
unless  they  are  sanctified  by  the  inward  gift  of  grace,  and  are 
united  to  Christ,  the  Head,  by  the  inward  bond  of  the  Spirit. 
To  this  holy  Catholic  Church,  then,  which  forms  the  mystical 
body  of  Christ,  we  deny  that  the  ungodly,  hypocrites,  or  any 
belong,  who  are  not  partakers  of  spiritual  life."  [Det.  xlvi.) 

Again:    "The  invisible  Omrch  is  not  a  Platonic  idea.     A 

twofold  meaning  may  be  given  to  this  proposition  :  One,  that 

an  invisible  Church  is  not  a  mere  figment  of  our  divines,  but 

that  that  holy  Catholic  Church,  in  which  in  the 

Church  Creed  we  profess  to  believe,  is  really  invisible. 
The  other  that  the  orthodox  Church,  which  rightly 
worships  God,  may  be  reduced  within  such  narrow  limits,  and 
by  a  prevailing  faction  of  the  superstitious  or  heretical,  be  for 
a  time  so  oppressed,  as  to  come  before  the  eyes  of  the  vulgar 
with  no  external  splendor. 

"  What  we  speak  of  the  invisible  Church,  (in  the  first  sense,) 
is  perfectly  true :  First,  because  the  main  part  of  it,  that  which 
is  triumphant  in  heaven,  is  not  apparent  to  human  vision,  but 
to  faith.  .  .  .  The  denominations  of  things  are  very  properly 
taken  either  from  the  predominant  or  the  more. noble  part  of 

*  De  Eccl.  Mil.  iii.  2. 


DIVERS    ORDERS.  26/ 

them.  Since  then  that  numerous  and  noble  Church,  which  is 
now  triumphant  in  heaven,  is  plainly  invisible  to  us ;  since 
Christ  himself,  the  Head  of  the  Catholic  Church,  is  also  in- 
visible ;  when  we  say  that  the  Church  is  invisible,  we  are  not 
putting  forward  a  Platonic  idea;  on  the  contrary,  we  intend 
to  point  out  the  best,  the  chief,  the  most  holy,  and  most  sure 
part  of  the  Church.  Secondly,  we  maintain  that  the  Church  is 
invisible,  on  the  ground  that  this  part  itself  which  sojourns 
upon  earth  cannot  be  perceived  or  judged  of  by  any  outward 
sense.  We  see  the  individuals,  indeed,  of  whom  particular 
churches  are  formed,  but  which  of  them  belongs  to  the  holy 
Catholic  Church,  which  is  Christ's  mystical  body,  there  is  no 
evidence  for  the  eyes  to  discern. 

"  TJiirdly,  that  this  proposition  is  not  a  mere  fiction  of  the 
Protestants,  but  a  real  truth,  may  be  proved  from  the  fact, 
that  nothing  which  is  capable  of  being  perceived  by  the  sight, 
or  by  any  other  natural  sense,  affords  certain  proof  concern- 
ing any  one  that  he  is  a  member  of  the  Catholic  Church." 
{^Det.  xxxv.) 

Of  diversity  of  degrees  in  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  :  '*  It 
will  not  be  necessary  to  inquire  minutely  whether  Episcopacy 
be  a  distinct  order  from  Presbytery,  or  only  another  and 
higher  degree  in  the  same  order.  William  of  Auvergne,  Bishop 
of  Paris,  distinctly  affirms  that  Episcopacy  is  not 
an  order,  but  an  honor;  which  is  also  maintained  by  orders  " 
Gerson,  whose  words  are  these :  Bishops  do  not 
possess  a  different  pozver  of  order  front  that  of  priests,  but  they 
possess  the  same  pozver  in  a  more  perfect  measure.  Finally, 
Durandus  is  of  the  same  opinion  :  Episcopacy,  says  he,  is  not 
an  order  strictly  distinct  from  the  simple  priesthood,  but  the  dis- 
tifiction  betzveen  them  is  of  perfect  and  imperfect.  Hither  tends 
the  argument  of  the  schoolmen,  that  the  episcopate,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  simple  priesthood,  is  not  another  order, 
but  a  more  eminent  power  and  dignity  of  certain  persons  who 
are  in  the  same  sacerdotal  order.  *  It  is  sufficient  for  us  (lay- 
ing aside  this  verbal  dispute)  to  show  that  those  who  are 
peculiarly  called  bishops,  have  a  higher  dignity,  greater  power, 


268         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

and  more  excellent  offices  annexed  to  them  than  other  pres- 
byters have,  and  that  this  is  not  repugnant  to  the  word  of 
God.  But  it  were  trivial  to  say,  not  repugnant ;  for  it  is  easy 
to  demonstrate  that,  in  the  divine  word,  this  eminence  of 
bishops  above  presbyters  is  shadowed  out,  delineated,  and  by 
the  apostles  themselves  established. 

''Y or,  first,  the  institution  of  the  high-priest  in  the  Jewish 
Church  afforded  to  the  Christian  Church  a  clear  precedent 
for  the  establishment  of  a  similar  order.  Second,  Christ  him- 
self constituted  ministers  for  the  edification  of  his  Church, 
not  endued  with  equal  authority,  but  distinct  in  degree  of  dig- 
nity and  power.  For  the  twelve  apostles  were  superior  to  the 
seventy  disciples,  .  .  .  and  it  is  the  constant  doctrine  of  nearly 
all  the  Fathers,  that  the  bishops  succeeded  the  apostles  in  the 
ordinary  government  of  the  Church,  as  the  presbyters  also  suc- 
ceeded the  seventy  disciples.  TJiird,  before  the  apostles  left 
the  earth,  they  placed  in  the  great  cities  a  bishop,  in  authority 
superior  to,  and  in  power  greater  than  the  other  presbyters. 
Chief  pastor  of  the  city,  he  possessed  superiority  not  only 
over  the  laity,  but  over  the  clergy  of  the  city.  And  of  these 
chief  pastors  it  is  certain  that  there  was  a  perpetual  succession. 

"  There  are  three  peculiar  marks,  of  apostolical  appointment, 
by  which  bishops  are  distinguished  from  other  presbyters. 

*'  ^\\.^  first,  that  in  the  largest  cities,  each  having  many  pres- 
byters, the  apostles  ordained  one  bishop  only,  at  whose  decease 
another  succeeded  singly  in  the  same  see.  The  second  mark 
is  the  right  and  power  of  ordination,  which  was  transmitted  by 
the  apostles  themselves  to  bishops,  but  denied  to  inferior 
presbyters.  In  this  apostolic  institution  the  Catholic  Church 
has  always  acquiesced,  and  has  not  acknowledged  any  other 
ordination  lawful  than  that  which  was  solemnized  by  a  law- 
ful bishop. 

"  Question:  But  can  one  inferior  to  a  bishop  confer  sacred 
orders  in  case  of  necessity  ?  Anszuer :  Since  the  act  of  ordi- 
nation is,  by  apostolic  institution,  proper  to  the  episcopal 
office,  if  presbyters,  in  a  well- constituted  church,  do  that, 
their  act  is  not  only  unlawful,  but  is  null  and  void.     But  in  a 


BACON    ON     CHURCH     GOVERNMENT.  269 

disturbed  Church,  where  all  the  bishops  have  fallen  into 
heresy  or  idolatry,  where  they  have  refused  to  ordain  ortho- 
dox ministers,  etc.,  if  orthodox  presbyters  be  compelled  to 
ordain  other  presbyters,  that  the  Church  may  not   ^    , 

.      ^  .  .  ,.  Presbytenal 

perish,  I  could  not  venture  to  pronounce  ordma-  ordination, 
tions  of  this  kind  vain  and  invalid.  For  if  the 
danger  that  threatens  a  single  infant  be  sufficient  to  transfer  the 
office  of  baptizing  to  any  layman,  which,  by  the  original  insti- 
tution, belongs  to  ministers  alone,  why  is  not  the  danger  im- 
pending over  a  particular  church  sufficient  to  transfer  to  sim- 
ple priests  that  office  of  ordaining,  which,  by  its  primary 
institution,  belongs  to  bishops  alone? 

"  If,  then,  certain  Protestant  churches,  which  could  not  look 
for  ordination  from  popish  bishops,  have,  under  this  necessity, 
ordained  presbyters,  by  the  unanimous  act  of  their  own  pres- 
byters, they  are  not  to  be  considered  as  having  passed  any 
judgment  derogatory  to  the  episcopal  dignity,  but  as  having 
yielded  to  the  necessity  of  the  Church. 

"The  last  mark  of  episcopal  dignity  is  tJie  pozver  of  jurisdic- 
tion, not  only  over  the  laity,  but  also  over  the  clergy;  not 
indeed  a  regal,  or  lordly,  power,  but  one  that  is  pastoral  or 
paternaiy  (Dctcrm.  xlii.) 

Early  in  the  reign  of  James  I.,  Lord  Bacon  gave  evidence 
of  his  deep  interest  in  the  questions  then  agitating  the  Church 
of  England  by  the  publication  of  a  Tract:  Certain  Cojtsiderations 
touching  tJie  better  Pacification  and  Edification  of  the 
Church,  etc.     As  an  important  contribution  to  the         ^,^°"  , 

r  •     '  1    •  r       ^    '    ^      •         ^^  Church 

development  of  opmion  on  the  subject  of  which  it  government, 
treats,  both  in  the  author's  own  day  and  in  the  gen- 
eration following,  this  record  of  Bacon's  views  may  well  claim 
our  attention.  The  leading  points  are  embraced  in  the  follow- 
ing brief  abstract:  "  I  think  it  good  to  remove,  if  it  may  be, 
two  opinions,  which  directly  confront  and  oppone  to  reforma- 
tion :  the  one  bringing  it  to  a  nullity,  and  the  other  to  an  im- 
possibility. The  first  is,  that  it  is'opposed  to  good  policy  to 
innovate  any  thing  in  Church  matters ;  the  other  that  all  re- 
formation must  be  after  one  platform. 


2'JO  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

"For  the  first  of  these,  it  is  excellently  said  by  the  prophet : 
**  State  super  vias  antiquas,  et  videte  quaenam  sit  via  recta  et 
vera,  et  ambulate  in  ea.'  So  as  he  doth  not  say,  *  State  super 
vias  antiquas,  et  ambulate  in  eis  : "  for  it  is  true,  that  with  all 
wise  and  moderate  persons,  custom  and  usage  obtaineth  that 
reverence  as  it  is  sufficient  matter  to  move  them  to  make  a 
stand,  and  to  discover,  and  take  a  view  ;  but  it  is  no  warrant 
to  guide  and  conduct  them  :  a  just  ground,  I  say,  it  is  of  delib- 
eration, but  not  of  direction.  But  on  the  other  side,  who 
knoweth  not  that  time  is  truly  compared  to  a  stream,  that 
carrieth  down  fresh  and  pure  waters  into  that  salt  sea  of  cor- 
ruption which  environeth  all  human  actions  ?  And  therefore 
if  man  shall  not  by  his  industry,  virtue,  and  policy,  as  it  were 
with  the  oar,  row  against  the  stream  and  inclination  of  time, 
all  institutions  and  ordinances,  be  they  never  so  pure,  will  cor- 
rupt and  degenerate." 

"  For  the  second  point,  that  there  should  be  but  one  form 
of  discipline  in  all  churches,  and  that  imposed  by  necessity  of 
a  commandment,  and  prescript  out  of  the  word  of  God,  it  is  a 
matter  volumes  have  been  compiled  of,  and  therefore  cannot 
receive  a  brief  redargution.  I  for  my  part  do  confess  that  in 
revolving  the  Scriptures  I  could  never  find  any  such  thing,  but 
that  God  had  left  the  like  liberty  to  the  church  government  as 
lie  had  done  to  the  civil  government,  to  be  varied  according 
to  time,  and  place,  and  accidents,  which  nevertheless  his  high 
and  divine  providence  doth  order  and  dispose.  For  all  civil 
governments  are  restrained  from  God  unto  the  general  grounds 
of  justice  and  manners,  but  the  policies  and  forms  of  them 
are  left  free ;  so  that  monarchies  and  kingdoms,  senates  and 
seignories,  the  popular  states  and  communalties  are  lawful,  and 
where  they  are  planted  ought  to  be  maintained  inviolate. 

"  So  likewise  in  Church  matters  the  substance  of  doctrine  is 
immutable  ;  and  so  are  the  general  rules  of  government ;  but 
for  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  for  the  particular  hierarchies, 
policies,  and  discipline  of  churches,  they  be  left  at  large.  And 
therefore  it  is  good  we  return  unto  the  ancient  bounds  of  unity 
in  the  Church  of  God ;  which  was  one  faith,  one  baptism  ;  and 


BACON    ON    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT.  2/1 

not  one  hierarchy,  one  discipline  ;  and  that  we  observe  the 
league  of  Christians,  as  it  is  penned  by  our  Saviour;  which  is 
in  substance  this  :  *  He  that  is  not  with  us  is  against  us  ; '  but 
in  things  indifferent,  and  but  of  circumstance,  thus  :  *  He  that 
is  not  against  us  is  with  us.'  In  these  things,  so  as  the  gen- 
eral rules  be  observed  ;  that  Christ's  flock  be  fed  ;  that  there  be 
a  succession  in  bishops  and  ministers,  which  are  the  prophets 
of  the  New  Testament ;  that  there  be  a  due  and  reverent  use 
of  the  power  of  the  keys  ;  that  those  that  preach  the  gospel 
live  of  the  gospel ;  that  all  things  tend  to  edification;  that  all 
things  be  done  in  order  and  with  decency,  and  the  like;  the 
rest  is  left  to  the  holy  wisdom  and  spiritual  discretion  of  the 
master  builders  and  inferior  builders  in  Christ's  Church,  as  it  is 
excellently  alluded  to  by  that  father  that  noted  that  Christ's 
garment  was  without  seam  ;  and  yet  the  Church's  garment 
was  of  divers  colors ;  and  thereupon  setteth  down  for  a  rule : 
*  in  veste  varietas  sit,  scissura  non  sit.' 

"For  the  government  of  bishops,  I  for  my  part,  not  prejudg- 
ing the  precedents  of  other  reformed  Churches,  do  hold  it 
warranted  by  the  word  of  God,  and  by  the  practice  of  the 
ancient  Church  in  the  better  times,  and  much  more  convenient 
for  kingdoms  than  parity  of  ministers,  and  government  by 
.synods.  But  then  farther,  it  is  to  be  considered  that  the 
Church  is  not  now  to  plant  or  build;  but  only  to  be  pruned 
from  corruption,  and  to  be  repaired  and  restored  in  some  de- 
cays." [Works,  ii.  420,  ed.  Mont.) 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

Bishop  Hall's  Episcopacy  by  Divine  Right,  Revised  by  Archbishop  Laud 
—  Laud's  Exposition  of  Matt,  xxviii.  20  —  His  Doctrine  of  Apostolical 
Succession  —  Divine     Right — Bishop    Hall's    Interpretation  —  Smec- 

TYMNUUS. 

ANEW  period  in  the  history  of  the  anti-Puritan  contro- 
versy opens  with  the  publication  of  Bishop  Hall's  Epis- 
copacy by  Divine  Right  Asserted,  [No.  190,]  a  work  written  at 
the  solicitation  of  Archbishop  Laud,  and  submitted 

Bp,  Hall's  ,  .  .    .  ^,  ,     \  ,      .       .        , 

Episcopacy  by  to  his  revision.     The  author  s  avowed  aim  m  the 
divine       composition  of  this  treatise  was  to  stem  the  revo- 

nght,  1640,  ^ 

lutionary  tide  which  was  now  rapidly  setting  in, 
and  threatening  to  engulph  the  established  polity  alike  in 
Church  and  State. 

The  two  leading  propositions  of  the  work  are  stated  in  the 
terms  following :  "  First,  That  Episcopacy,  that  which  implies 
a  fixed  superiority  over  the  rest  of  the  clergy,  and  jurisdiction, 
is  not  only  a  holy  and  lawful,  but  a  divine  institution  ;  and, 
therefore,  cannot  be  abdicated,  without  a  manifest  violation  of 
God's  ordinance. 

"  Secondly,  That  the  Presbyterian  government,  however 
vindicated  under  the  glorious  names  of  Christ's  kingdom  and 
ordinance,  by  those  specious  and  glozing  terms  to  bewitch  the 
ignorant  multitude,  and  to  ensnare  their  consciences,  hath  no 
true  footing,  either  in  Scripture  or  the  practice  of  the  Church, 
in  all  ages,  from  Christ's  time  to  the  present." 

To  make  good  these  two  propositions,  "wherein,"  says  the 
bishop,  "  consists  the  life  and  soul  of  the  whole  cause,"  he 
lays  down  ''  CQridan  pos till ata,''  as  he  terms  them  —  incontesta- 
ble principles  —  as  the  groundworks  of  his  argument.  These 
postulates  are  fifteen  in  number :    "  i.  That  government,  whose 

272 


BISHOP    HALL   S    EPISCOPACY    BY    DIVINE    RIGHT.       2/3 

foundation  is  laid  by  Christ,  and  whose  fabric  is  raised  by  the 
apostles,  is  of  divine  institution. 

"  2.  Not  only  the  government  which  was  directly  commanded 
and  enacted,  but  that  which  was  practised  and  recommended 
by  the  apostles  to  the  Church,  is  justly  to  be  held  for  an  apos- 
tolical institution. 

**  3.  The  form  which  the  apostles  set  and  ordained  for  the 
governing  of  the  Church  was  not  intended  by  them  for  that 
present  time  or  place  only;  but  for  continuance  and  succes- 
sion for  ever. 

"  4.  The  universal  practice  of  the  Church  immediately  suc- 
ceeding the  apostolic  times,  is  a  sure  commentary  upon  the 
practice  of  the  apostles,  and  our  best  direction. 

"5.  The  primitive  saints  and  fathers  neither  would  nor  durst 
set  up  another  form  of  government  different  from  that  they 
received  of  the  apostles. 

"6.  If  the  next  successors  would  have  innovated  the  form 
of  government,  yet  they  could  not,  in  so  short  a  space,  have 
diffused  it  through  the  whole  Christian  world. 

*'  7.  The  ancientest  histories  of  the  Church  and  writings  of 
the  first  fathers  are  rather  to  be  believed  in  the  report  of  the 
primitive  state  of  Church  government  than  those  of  this  pres- 
ent age. 

"  8,  Those  whom  the  ancient  Church  of  God  and  all  the  holy 
fathers  of  the  Church  since  have  condemned  for  heretics  are 
no  fit  guides  for  us  to  follow,  in  that  their  judgment  of  the 
government  for  which  they  were  so  condemned. 

"9.  The  accession  of  honorable  titles  and  not  incompatible 
privileges  makes  no  difference  in  the  substance  of  a  lawful  and 
holy  calling. 

"  10.  Those  Scriptures,  whereon  a  new  and  different  form  of 
government  is  raised,  had  need  to  be  more  evident  and  un- 
questionable than  those  which  are  alleged  for  the  former  that 
is  rejected. 

"11.  If  Christ  had  left  this  pretended  order  of  government, 
(the  Presbyterian,)  it  would  have,  ere  this  time,  been  agreed 
upon,  what  that  form  is,  and  how  to  be  managed. 
18 


2/4  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

**  12.  If  this,  which  is  challenged,  be  the  kingdom  of  Christ, 
then  those  churches  which  want  any  essential  part  of  it  are 
mainly  defective,  and  there  is  scarce  any  at  all  entire. 

**  13.  True  Christian  policy  requires  not  any  thing  which  is 
either  impossible  or  absurd  to  be  done. 

"  14.  New  pretences  of  truths  never  before  heard  of,  espe- 
cially in  main  points,  carry  just  cause  of  suspicion. 

"15.  To  depart  from  the  judgment  and  practice  of  the  uni- 
versal Church  of  Christ  ever  since  the  apostles'  times,  and  to 
betake  ourselves  to  a  new  invention,  cannot  but  be,  besides 
the  danger,  vehemently  scandalous." 

Such  are  the  propositions  and  postulates  in  their  final  form. 

As  first  submitted  to  Laud's  revision,  the  second  proposition 

was  couched  in  terms  which    implied  that   the  Presbyterian 

form  of  polity  might  be  useful  in  places  where  the 

revision  episcopate  could  not  be  had.  To  this  the  primate 
takes  exception,  as  "  an  unnecessary  and  danger- 
ous concession.  I  am  of  opinion,"  he  writes,  "  there  is  no 
place  where  episcopacy  is  impracticable.  Since  they  (the 
Presbyterians)  are  so  bold  in  their  claim,  and  carry  their  pre- 
tensions so  high ;  since  they  obtrude  their  Presbyterian  fiction 
for  Christ's  kingdom  and  ordinance,  and  throw  off  episcopacy 
as  an  opposite  and  unwarrantable  government,  we  must  not 
use  any  mincing  terms,  but  unmask  them  plainly,  and  expose 
the  delusion;  we  must  not  embarrass  ourselves,  and  compli- 
ment away  truth,  for  fear  of  displeasing  Amsterdam  or  Geneva 
with  this  plain  dealing." 

As  originally  expressed,  the  first /^.sY/z/^^A' stood  thus  :  "That 
government  which  was  of  apostolical  institution  cannot  be 
denied  to  stand  upon  divine  right."  To  this  the  archbishop 
objects  that,  though  true,  it  is  "  too  narrowly  expressed  ;  for 
episcopacy  is  not  to  be  so  confined  to  apostolical  institution  as 
to  bar  it  from  a  further  ascent,  and  from  deriving  it  originally 
from  our  Saviour  himself;  though  perhaps  the  apostles  might 
superstruct  something  with  respect  to  form  and  circumstances. 
.  .  .  The  adversaries  of  episcopacy  are  not  only  the  furious 
Aerian  heretics,  amongst  which  we  may  reckon  the  Scottish 


LAUD   S    REVISION.  2/5 

novelists :  besides  these,  there  are  others  of  a  more  specious 
alloy,  both  in  the  Genevian  and  Roman  faction.  The  latter 
division  will  be  contented  episcopacy  should  be  juris  divini 
incdiati,  by,  from,  and  under  the  Pope,  leaving  him  the  privi- 
lege of  a  spiritual  monarch  over  the  whole  Church.  But 
these  controversy  writers  of  the  court  of  Rome  will  not  allow 
episcopacy  to  be  jiiris  divini  iimncdiati,  which  makes  the 
Church  aristocratical  in  the  bishops.  This  distinction  of 
juris  divini  mcdiati  is  the  Italian  rock;  of  which  the  Gene- 
vians,  to  give  them  their  due,  stand  clear.  Some  of  these 
men  will  not  deny  episcopacy  to  h^  juris  divini,  without  the 
above-mentioned  distinction  :  but  then  they  throw  in  qualify- 
ing terms  of  another  kind  ;  it  is  2it  suadcntis  vcl  approbantis,  sed 
non  impcrantis :  they  will  needs  have  this  kind  of  government 
stand  upon  courtesy,  and  leave  it  to  the  discretion  of  the 
people.  And  thus,  by  the  help  of  this  reserve,  they  may 
either  admit  or  renounce  it,  as  interest  or  fancy  happens  to 
suggest :  nay,  unless  my  memory  very  much  fails  me,  Beza 
himself  is  said  to  have  owned  episcopacy  to  be  juris  divini 
imperantis  ;  but  then  he  comes  in  with  this  salvo  o^  non  univer- 
saliter  imperantis ;  and  that  it  was  instituted  citra  considera- 
tionem  durationis.  And  thus  by  fencing  with  these  distinc- 
tions, and  going  a  little  at  large,  Geneva  and  Scotland  may 
escape  censure,  give  themselves  a  dispensation  from  Catholic 
practice,  live  under  bishops  in  one  age,  and  without  them  in 
another.  This  is  the  great  rock  in  the  lake  of  Geneva,  which 
hitherto  you  seem  not  to  have  sufficiently  marked."  In  ref- 
erence to  the  ninth  postulatum,  which  affirms  that  the  annex- 
ing honorable  titles  or  privileges  makes  no  difference  in  the 
substance  of  the  calling,  the  reviser  suggests  the  propriety  of 
"guarding  the  meaning  from  misconstruction:  for  otherwise 
it  is  probable  the  faction  may  make  an  advantage  of  the  asser- 
tion ;  they  may  pretend  it  is  possible  that  a  bishop  implies  no 
more  than  an  honorable  distinction,  and  that  their  order  and 
powers  are  the  same  with  that  of  a  priest.  As  to  the  eleventh 
postulatujn,  it  must  be  managed  with  great  caution,  for  fear 


2/6         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

of  a  saucy  answer,  which  is  a  great  deal  more  ready  with 
them  than  a  learned  one."  * 

When  the  finished  work  was  laid  before  Laud  for  his  final 
review,  he  animadverted  upon  a  remarkable  omission :  the 
author  had  waived  the  discussion  of  the  question,  Whether 
Episcopacy  be  an  order  or  a  degree  ?  as  a  question  of  compara- 
tively little  moment ;  "  whereas  those  learned  men  the  arch- 
bishop consulted  thought  the  main  controversy  turned  upon 
this  point." 

Some  time  before  the  publication  of  this  work,  there  ap- 
peared the  second  edition,  much  enlarged,  of  Laud's  Co?tfer- 
cnce  with  Fisher,  the  Jestdt,  (first  edition,  1624,)  in  which  occur 
the  following  noteworthy  passages  :  **  '  I  am  with  you  always 
unto  the  end  of  the  world.'  Yes ;  most  certain 
Laud's  expo-  -^  ig^present  by  His  Spirit;  for  else  in  bodily 

sition  of  Matt.  _.,.  .  ,  -itt-  1         1 

xxviii.  20  presence  He  contmued  not  with  His  apostles,  but 
during  his  abode  on  earth.  And  this  promise  of 
His  spiritual  presence  was  to  their  successors ;  else  why  '  to 
the  end  of  the  world'?  The  apostles  did  not,  could  not  live 
so  long.  But  then  to  the  successors,  the  promise  goes  no 
further  than  I  am  with  you  always,  but' not  to  divine  and  in- 
fallible." 

To  this  is  appended  a  marginal  note:  "  Rabanus  Maurus 
goes  no  further  than  that  to  the  end  some  will  always  be  in 
the  world  fit  for  Christ  by  His  spirit  and  grace  to  inhabit : 
Divina  mansione  et  inhabitatione  digni.  Pergatis,  habentes  Doin- 
inum  Protectorem  et  Duceiii,  saith  St.  Cyprian.  But  he  doth 
not  say  how  far  forth.  And  Loqidtnr  Fidelibus  siciittini  corpori, 
St.  Chrysostom.  And  if  St.  Chrysostom  enlarge  it  so  far,  I 
hope  A.  C.  (Fisher)  will  not  extend  the  assistance  given  or 
promised  here  to  the  whole  body  of  the  faithful,  to  an  infalli- 
ble and  divine  assistance  in  every  of  them,  as  well  as  in  the 
pastors  and  doctors." 

The  text  continues  :  "  '  The  Comforter,  the  Holy  Ghost,  shall 
abide  with  you  forever.'  Most  true  again ;  for  the  Holy 
Ghost  did  abide  with  the  apostles,  according  to  Christ's  pro- 

*  Rushworth,  Coll.,  P.  II.     Collier,  ii.,  p.  789,  viii.  167. 


APOSTOLICAL    SUCCESSION.  277 

mise  there  made,  and  shall  abide  with  their  successors  for- 
ever, to  comfort  and  preserve  them.  But  here  is  no  promise 
of  divine  infaUibility  made  unto  them.  And  for  that  promise 
which  is  made,  and  expressly  of  infallibility,  St.  John  xvi.  13, 
that  is  confined  to  the  apostles  only,  for  the  settling  of  them 
in  all  truth.  .  .  .  All  that  was  necessary  for  the  founding,  pro- 
pagating, establishing,  and  confirming  the  Christian  Church. 
But  if  any  man  take  the  boldness  to  enlarge  this  promise  in 
the  fulness  of  it,  beyond  the  persons  of  the  apostles  them- 
selves, that  will  fall  out  which  Augustine  hath  in  a  manner 
prophesied  :  every  heretic  will  shelter  himself,  and  his  vanities, 
under  this  color  of  infallible  verity."  {Sect,  xvi.) 

The  question.  What  is  a  true  Church  ?  Laud  answers  in 
these  terms  :  "  A  man  that  is  most  dishonest,  and  unworthy 
the  name,  a  very  thief,  (if  you  will,)  is  a  true  man,  in  the  verity 
of  his  essence,  as  he  is  a  creature  endued  with  reason,  for  this 
none  can  steal  from  him,  nor  he  from  himself,  but  death :  but 
is  not  therefore  a  right  or  an  upright  man.  And  a  Church 
that  is  exceedingly  corrupt,  both  in  manners  and  doctrine, 
and  so  a  dishonor  to  the  name,  is  yet  a  true  Church,  in  the 
verity  of  essence,  as  a  Church  is  a  company  of  men  which 
profess  the  faith  of  Christ,  and  are  baptized  into  his  name : 
but  yet  it  is  not  therefore  a  right  C/mrch,  either  in  doctrine  or 
manners.  It  may  be  you  meant  cunningly  to  slip  in  this  word 
*  right,'  that  I  might,  at  unawares,  grant  it  orthodox.  But  I 
was  not  so  to  be  caught :  for  I  know  well  that  orthodox 
Christians  are  keepers  of  integrity,  and  followers  of  right 
things,  (so  St.  Augustine ;)  of  which  the  Church  of  Rome  at 
this  day  is  neither.  In  this  sense  then  no  right,  that  is,  no 
orthodox  Church  at  Rome."  (/<:/.,  §  xx.) 

Of  apostolical  succession :  "  I  do  not  find  any  one  of  the 
ancient  fathers  that  makes  locals  personal,  visible,  and  con- 
tinued succession  a  necessary  sign  or  mark  of  the  true  Church 
in  any  one  place.     And  where  Vincentius  Lirin- 

,,      ^  .       .  .  ,.  ,  Apostolical 

ensis  calls  tor  antiquity,  universality,  and  consent,     succession 
as  great  notes  of  truth,  he  hath  not  one  word  of 
succession.  .  .  .  Most  evident  it  is  that  the  succession  which 


2/8  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

the  fathers  meant  is  not  tied  to  place  or  person^  but  it  is  tied 
to  the  verity  of  doctrine.  For  so  TertuUian  expressly.  Beside 
the  order  of  bishops  running  down  (in  succession)  from  the 
beginning,  there  is  required  consanguinitas  docirijice,  that  the 
doctrine  be  allied  in  blood  to  that  of  Christ  and  his  apostles. 
So  that,  if  the  doctrine  be  no  kin  to  Christ,  all  the  succession 
become  strangers,  what  nearness  soever  they  pretend.  And 
Irenaeus  speaks  plainer  than  he :  *  We  are  to  obey  those  pres- 
byters which,  together  with  the  succession  of  their  bishoprics, 
have  received  charisjna  veritatis,  the  gift  of  truth.'  " 

About  a  year  prior  to  the  publication  of  his  treatise  on 
Episcopacy,  Bishop  Hall,  little  thinking  that  he  should  be 
called  upon  for  the  performance  of  any  larger  task,  put  forth 
**  Certain  irrefragable  propositions,"  as  he  termed  them,  **  not 
in  the  way  of  a  challenger,  but  rather  of  a  faithful  remem- 
brancer to  his  dear  brethren,  of  those  points  which  they  could 
not,"  as  he  believed,  "  but  know  and  yield."  Among  these 
were  the  two  following,  "  concerning  Church  government": 

I.  **  No  man  living,  no  history,  can  show  any  well-allowed 
and  settled  national  church  in  the  whole  Christian  world, 
that  hath  been  governed  otherwise  than  by  bishops,  in  a  meet 
and  moderate  imparity,  ever  since  the  times  of  Christ  and  his 
apostles,  until  this  present  age." 

II.  "  No  man  living,  no  record  of  history,  can  show  any 
lay-presbyter  that  ever  was  in  the  whole  Christian  Church, 
until  this  present  age." 

These  propositions,  expressing  in  his  own  language  the 
good  bishop's  earnest  convictions,  explain  the  sense  in  which 
he  claims  to  demonstrate  the  divine  right  o^  Episcopacy,  that 
is  to  say,  in  the  sense  of  apostolical  institution,  as  ascertained 
by  apostolical  precedent  and  primitive  practice ;  not  in  the 
sense  of  such  a  divine  prescription  as  renders  it  indispensable 
to  the  being  of  a  Church,  or  the  constitution  of  a  valid  min- 
istry. Such  indeed  is  the  interpretation  which  he  elsewhere 
puts  upon  his  own  words :  "  When  we  speak  of 

Divine  right.      .....  i  r  /--«      i 

divine  right,  we  mean  not  an  express  law  oi  (jod, 
requiring  it  upon   the  absolute   necessity  of  the  being  of  a 


SMECTYMNUUS.  2/9 

Church,  what  hindrances  soever  may  interpose  ;  but  a  divine 
institution,  warranting  it  where  it  is,  and  requiring  it  where  it 
may  be  had.  Every  church,  therefore,  which  is  capable  of 
this  form  of  government,  both  may  and  ought  to  affect  it,  as 
that  which  is,  with  so  much  authority,  derived  from  the  apos- 
tles, to  the  whole  body  of  the  Church  upon  earth  :  but  those 
particular  churches  to  whom  this  power  and  faculty  is  denied 
lose  nothing  of  the  true  essence  of  a  church,  though  they 
miss  something  of  their  glory  and  perfection,  whereof  they  are 
barred  by  the  necessity  of  their  condition ;  neither  are  liable 
to  any  more  imputation,  in  their  credit  and  esteem,  than  an 
honest  tenant  who  is  tied  to  the  limitations  and  terms  of  a 
hard  landlord."  {Humble  Remonstrance}) 

"  There  is  no  difference  in  any  essential  matter  betwixt  the 
Church  of  England  and  her  sisters  of  the  Reformation.  We 
accord  in  every  point  of  Christian  doctrine  without  the  least 
variation  ;  their  public  confessions  and  ours  are  sufficient  con- 
victions to  the  world  of  our  full  and  absolute  agreement.  The 
only  difference  is  in  the  form  of  outward  administration  ; 
wherein  also  we  are  so  far  agreed  as  that  we  all  profess  this 
form  not  to  be  essential  to  the  being  of  a  church,  though 
much  importing  the  well  or  better  being  of  it,  according  to 
our  several  apprehensions  thereof,  and  that  we  do  all  retain  a 
reverence  and  loving  opinion  of  each  other  in  our  own  several 
ways,  not  seeing  any  reason  why  so  poor  a  diversity  should 
work  any  alienation  of  affection  in  us  one  towards  another." 
[TJie  Peacemaker,  §vi.) 

Petitions  in  great  numbers  were  now  pouring  into  Parlia- 
ment for  the  abolition  of  diocesan  episcopacy,  and  the  estab- 
lishment, in  its  stead,  of  the  Presbyterian  polity.  In  view  of 
this  imminent  peril,  Bishop  Hall  put  forth,  this  same  year,  a 
tract  entitled  An  Humble  Remonstrance  to  the  High  Court  of 

Parliament,    for  Liturs^y   and  Episcopacy.       This  ^ 

'    -^  ^-^  i.  .  ,    ,        .     Smectvmnuus, 

called  forth.    An  Answer   to,  a  Book  entitled     An        j^^j 

Humble  Remonstrance ;  '    /;/  zvhich  the  original  of 

Liturgy  and  Episcopacy  is   discussed,    and  queries  propoimded 

concerning  both.       The   Parity   of    Bishops   and  Presbyters   in 


28o         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Scripture  dcinoistrated.  The  occasion  of  their  Imparity  in  a7i- 
tiquity  discovered.  The  Disparity  of  the  ancient  and  02ir 
modern  Bishops  manifested.  The  antiquity  of  Ruling  Elders  in 
the  CJiurcJi  vindicated.  The  Prelatical  Church  boimded.  By 
Smectymnuus.  (1641.)  [No.  195.]  This  was  promptly  followed, 
in  reply,  by  A  Defence  of  the  Humble  Remonstrance  against  the 
frivolous  and  false  exceptions  of  Smectymnuus^  wherein  the  7'ight 
of  Liturgy  and  Episcopacy  is  clearly  vindicated  from  the  vain 
cavils  and  challenges  of  the  Answerers.  By  the  author  of  the  said 
Humble  Re monstra7ice.  (1641.)  In  rejoinder,  speedily  appeared 
A  Vindicatio?i  of  the  Answer  to  the  Humble  Remonstrance,  etc., 
by  the  authors  of  the  Answer.  (1641.)  The  debate  was  closed 
by  the  publication  of  A  short  Anszver  to  the  tedious  Vindicatimi 
of  Smectymnims.     By  the  author  of  the  Humble  Remonstrance. 

(1641.) 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Controversial  Activity  in  1641  — Mason's  V^alidity  of  Presbyterial  Or- 
DiNATioN  —  Its  Genuineness  Vindicated  —  Ground  of  its  Rejection  — 
Milton's  Part  in  the  Puritan  Controversy  —  His  Exalted  Hopes  of 
the  "Second  Reformation"  —  Treatise  of  Reformation  Quoted  — 
Origin  of  these  Polemical  Tracts  —  Chillingvvorth  —  Apostolical 
Institution  of  Episcopacy  —  Milton's  Apology  for  Smectymnuus  — 
Jeremy  Taylor  :  Sacred  Order  and  Offices  of  Episcopacy  —  Charac- 
terized BY  Bishop  Heber  —  Adopts  the  Puritan  Position  —  Recedes 
from  that  of  Hooker  —  On  the  Plea  of  Necessity. 

'"ipHE  year  1641  is  signalized  in  the  annals  of  the  Anglican 
■*-  Episcopacy  by  an  unprecedented  controversial  activity. 
A  list  of  no  less  than  twenty-five  distinct  publications  bearing 
on  this  subject,  issued  in  a  single  twelvemonth, 
attests  the  liveliness  of  a  newly  awakened  interest.  ^  '^^' 
Among  the  works  of  merit  in  this  long  array  [No.  195-219] 
special  attention  may  be  called  to  the  following:  A  Collec- 
tion of  Tracts,  entitled  Certain  brief  Treatises,  written  by  divers 
learned  men,  concerning  the  ancient  and  modern  Government  of 
the  Church :  wherein  both  the  primitive  institution  of  Episcopacy 
is  maintained,  and  the  lawful fiess  of  the  Ordination  of  the  Protest- 
ant Ministers  beyond  the  seas  likewise  defended.  [No.  197-202.] 
This  volume  contains  six  dissertations,  ascribed  respectively 
to  Bishop  Andrewes,  Buccr,  Raynolds,  and  Archbishop  Usher, 
Brerewood,  Duree,  and  Mason. 

Of  Bishop  Andrewes'  share  in  this  collection,  Milton 
writes  in  no  respectful  terms  :  "  A  little  treatise,  lately  printed 
among  others  of  like  sort  at  Oxford,  and  in  the  title  said  to 

be  out  of  the  rude  drau^i^hts  of  Bishop  Andrewes : 

=*  ^  Milton 

and  surely  they  be  rude   draughts  indeed,  inso-  vs. 

much  that  it  is  marvel  to  think  what  his  friends    ^'^^''^^es- 
meant,  to  let  come    abroad   such    shallow    reasonings   with 

281 


2S2         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

the  name  of  a  man  so  much  bruited  for  learning."  [Reason  of 
Ch.  Gov.,  b.  i.,  c.  V.) 

Of  the  sixth  treatise  in  this  volume,  entitled   "  The  Validity 
of  the  Orders  of  the  Ministers  of  the  Reformed  Churches  be- 
yond the  Seas,  maintained  against  the  Romanists,"  the  genu- 
ineness has  been  called  in  question.     The  trans- 
Mason  on  A1-  ^1  rxT 

Orders  l^tor  of  Mason  s  work  on  Anglican  Orders  [No. 
159]  pronounces  it  spurious  on  grounds  which 
may  be  summed  up  under  the  four  heads  following:  i.  The 
work  did  not  appear  until  twenty  years  after  Mason's  death. 
2.  It  was  edited  by  John  Duree,  a  Scotchman,  respecting 
whom  it  is  not  known  whether  he  ever  received  English 
orders,  but  who  was  a  zealous  partisan  of  the  Presbyterians 
in  1641,  and  afterwards  joined  the  Independents  when  they 
obtained  the  upper  hand ;  and  who,  moreover,  does  not  state 
how  the  work  came  into  his  possession.  3.  It  is  published  as 
an  addition  or  appendix  to  Mason's  work  in  defence  of  the 
ministry  of  the  Church  of  England ;  though  Mason  himself 
has  given  no  intimation  of  the  existence  of  such  appendix ; 
nor  does  the  publisher  of  the  Latin  edition,  which  appeared 
four  years  after  the  author's  death,  (1625,)  who  had  the  originals 
of  Mason's  own  writing  in  his  hands,  make  any  allusion  to  it. 
4.  And  this  is  held  to  be  conclusive :  some  of  the  statements 
in  the  addition  are  inconsistent  with  the  principles  advocated 
in  Mason's  undisputed  work.  "  From  whence,"  concludes  the 
translator,  "  I  make  no  scruple  to  pass  this  censure  upon  it,  that 
it  is  none  of  his,  but  published  in  his  name  by  a  timeserver, 
to  serve  the  turn  of  a  faction  (after  his  death)  by  Mason's  well- 
established  reputation." 

A  sufficient  answer  to  these  exceptions  is  found  in  the  facts 
following :    i.  The   tract    is  ascribed    to    Mason  by  his    con- 
temporary, Dr.  Bernard,  Archbishop  Usher's  chaplain,  (Judg- 
ment of  the  late  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  etc.,  1657, 
XfndkTtld!''?-    ^33-)     2.  It   first   appeared    in    the    collection 
of  tracts    above    named,    of  which    Usher,    then 
living,  was  in  part  the  author.     3.  In    "  A    letter    from    Mr. 
Samuel  Ward  to  Mr.  James  Usher,  afterward  Archbishop  of 


MASON    ON    ORDERS.  283 

Armagh,  then  in  London,"  written  shortly  after  the  publica- 
tion of  the  ^;'^/ edition  of  Mason's  work  in  1613,  occur  the 
following  passages:  "  I  pray  you  inform  me  what  the  special- 
ties are  which  are  omitted  in  Mr.  Mason's  book.  I  would 
only  know  the  heads."  And  at  the  close  of  the  letter :  "  I 
had  no  leisure  when  I  was  with  you  to  inquire  how  Mr.  Mason 
doth  warrant  the  vocation  and  ordination  of  the  ministers 
of  the  Reformed  Churches  in  foreign  parts."  {Parrs  Life  and 
Letters  of  Usher,  p.  34). 

**  After  a  consideration  of  these  two  passages,"  writes  Dr. 
\Vordsworth,  "  I  apprehend  that  there  will  remain  little  doubt 
that  the  tract  in  question  did  indeed  constitute,  originally,  a 
portion  of  Mason's  grand  work  ;  that  it  formed  one  of  the 
main  "specialties  omitted,"  and  inquired  after  by  Ward;  being 
left  out  at  the  press,  possibly  from  some  prudential  consider- 
ations;  and  that  it  continued  in  MS.  till  1641,  when  it  ap- 
peared in  a  collection,  of  which  there  is  good  reason  to  believe 
that  Usher,  then  archbishop,  was  cognizant."  [Brit.  Mag.,  vol. 
xxii.,  p.  385,  1842;  and  Goode,  Doctrine  of  Ch.  of  Eng.  on 
Non-Episc.  Orders,  p.  38,  185 1.)  And  yet,  in  a  volume 
entitled  "  Apostolical  Succession  in  the  Church  of  England," 
etc.,  1869,  Mason's  Vindication  of  Foreign  Orders  is  summarily 
set  aside  as  a  book  undoubtedly  spurious  ! 

The    ground    of  this    summary    condemnation    is    obvious 

enough  ;  the  author  teaches  the  parity  of  episcopal  and  pres- 

byteral  order :  The  bishop  "  in  his  consecration   receiveth  a 

sacred  office,  an  eminency,  a  jurisdiction,  a  dignity, 

a  dec^ree  of  ecclesiastical  pre-eminence He  hath      '  .    ,. 

=>  ^  rejection. 

no  higher  degree  in  respect  of  intention  or  exten- 
sion of  the  character ;  but  he  hath  a  higher  degree,  that  is,  a 
more  excellent  place  in  respect  of  authority  and  jurisdiction, 
in  spiritual  regiment.  Wherefore,  seeing  a  presbyter  is  equal 
to  a  bishop  in  the  power  of  order,  he  hath  equal  intrinsical 
power  to  give  orders."  (Pp.  160-1.) 

Philodox,  the  Romish  advocate,  insisting  that  "the  pre- 
eminence of  bishops  \sjure  divino^'  Orthodox  replies  : 

"  First,  if  you  mean  by  j:(re  divino  that  which  is  according 


2S4         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

to  the  Scripture,  then  the  pre-eminence  of  bishops  \s  Jure  di- 

vino ;  for  it  hath  been  already  proved  to  be  according  to  the 

Scripture.     Secondly,  if  by  jure  divino  you  mean 

Jure  divino.  r   r^      ^     •         ^   •  1  • 

the  ordmance  of  God,  m  this  sense  also  it  may  be 
said  to  hQJiire  divino.  For  it  is  an  ordinance  of  the. apostles, 
whereunto  they  were  directed  by  God's  Spirit,  even  by  the 
spirit  of  prophecy,  and  consequently  the  ordinance  of  God. 
But  if  hy  jure  divino  you  understand  a  law  and  commandment 
of  God,  binding  all  Christian  Churches,  universally,  perpetu- 
ally, unchangeably,  and  with  such  absolute  necessity  that  no 
other  form  of  regiment  may  in  any  case  be  admitted ;  in  this 
sense  neither  may  we  grant  it,  nor  yet  can  you  prove  it  to  be 
jure  divino.  .  .  .  The  apostles,  in  their  lifetime,  ordained  many 
bishops,  and  left  a  fair  pattern  to  posterity.'  The  Church,  fol- 
lowing the  commodiousness  thereof,  embraced  it  in  all  ages 
through  the  Christian  world."  {15.,  p.  163.) 

Mason,  following  Hooker  and  Field,  rests  the  defence  of  the 
validity  of  the  ordinations  in  the  foreign  Reformed  Churches 
on  the  ground  of  necessity.  Philodox  replies  :  "  Suppose  that 
ordination  might  be  devolved  to  presbyters  in  case  of  neces- 
sity; yet  the  necessity  ceasing,  such  extraordinary  courses 
should  likewise  cease.  Why  then  do  they  continue  their 
former  practice  ?  Why  do  they  not  now  seek  to  receive  their 
orders  from  Protestant  bishops  ?  "  The  reply  of  Orthodox  is 
noteworthy:  "The  Churches  of  Germany  need  not  seek  to 
foreign  bishops,  because  they  have  superintendents  or  bishops 
among  themselves.  And  as  for  other  places  which  embrace 
the  discipline  of  Geneva,  they  also  have  bishops  in  effect ;  "  a 
statement  which  the  writer  proceeds  to  establish  by  showing 
that  the  Presbyterian  Churches  have  "  the  substance  of  the 
office."  "Thus  much,"  he  concludes,  "  concerning  the  minis- 
ters of  other  Reformed  Churches,  wherein,  if  you  will  not 
believe  us  disputing  for  the  lawfulness  of  their  calling,  yet  you 
must  give  us  leave  to  believe  God  himself  front  heaven  approv- 
ing their  ministry  by  pouring  down  a  blessing  upon  their  labors!' 
{lb.,  p.  173-6.) 

The  publication  of  these  treatises   furnished  the  occasion 


Milton's  part   in  the  puritan   debate.      285 

for  the  second  appearance  of  John  IMilton  as  an  eager  dis- 
putant in  this  controversy  —  a  controversy  rendered  specially 
memorable  by  the  active  part  taken  in  it  by  the 


Milton's  part 
the  Puritan 


great  poet.     Five   distinct  publications    signalize 
his  zeal  in  the  advocacy  of  the  Puritan  cause.  [No.      debate. 
204-8.]     Of  these   the   earliest  written  —  Of  Re- 
formation touching  Church  Discipline  in  Englmui — composed 
in  the  freshness  of  the  writer's  early  manhood,  is  perhaps,  of 
all  his  prose  compositions,  the  most  thoroughly  Miltonic. 

Such  is  my  impression  of  the  unsurpassed  energy,  alike  of 
thought  and  style,  specially  characteristic  of  this  work,  that  I 
cannot  resist  the  temptation  of  here  quoting  a  few  of  its  more 
striking  sentences,  illustrating,  as  they  do,  the  exalted  char- 
acter of  IMilton's  hopes  in  regard  to  the  issue  of  the  newly 
inaugurated  **  second  reformation." 

"  When  I  recall  to  mind  at  last,  after  so  many  dark  ages, 
wherein  the  huge  overshadowing  train  of  error  had  almost 
swept  all  the  stars  out  of  the  firmament  of  the  Church;  how 
the  bright  and  blissful  Reformation  (by  divine  power)  struck 
through  the  black  and  settled  night  of  ignorance  and  Anti- 
christian  tyranny,  methinks  a  sovereign  and  reviving  joy  must 
needs  rush  into  the  bosom  of  him  that  reads  or  hears ;  and 
the  sweet  odor  of  the  returning  gospel  imbathe  his  soul 
with  the  fragrancy  of  heaven :  Then  was  the  sacred  Bible 
sought  out  of  the  dusty  corners  where  profane  falsehood  and 
neglect  had  thrown  it,  the  schools  opened,  divine  and  human 
learning  raked  out  of  the  embers  of  forgotten  tongues,  the 
princes  and  cities  trooping  apace  to  the  new-erected  banner 
of  salvation  ;  the  martyrs,  with  the  irresistible  might  of  weak- 
ness, shaking  the  powers  of  darkness,  and  scorning  the  fiery 
rage  of  the  old  red  dragon. 

"  Thou,  therefore,  that  sittest  in  light  and  glory  unapproach- 
able. Parent  of  angels  and  men  !  next.  Thee  I  implore,  omni- 
potent King,  Redeemer  of  that  lost  remnant  whose  nature 
Thou  didst  assume,  ineffable  and  everlasting  Love  !  and  Thou, 
the  third  subsistence  of  divine  infinitude,  illumining  Spirit, 
the  joy  and  solace  of  created  things  !     One  Tripersonal  God- 


286        THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

head  !  look  upon  this,  thy  poor  and  almost  spent  and  expiring 
Church  ;  leave  her  not  thus  a  prey  to  those  importunate  wolves 
that  wait  and  think  long  till  they  devour  thy  tender  flock ; 
these  wild  boars  that  have  broke  into  thy  vineyard,  and  left 
the  print  of  their  polluting  hoofs  on  the  souls  of  thy  servants. 

**  O  thou,  that  after  the  impetuous  rage  of  five  bloody  inunda- 
tions, and  the  succeeding  sword  of  intestine  war,  soaking  the 
land  in  her  own  gore,  didst  pity  the  sad  and  ceaseless  revolu- 
tion of  our  swift  and  thick-coming  sorrows ;  when  we  were 
quite  breathless,  of  thy  free  grace  didst  motion  peace,  and 
terms  of  covenant  v/ith  us ;  and  having  first  wellnigh  freed 
us  from  Antichristian  thraldom,  didst  build  up  this  Britan- 
nic empire  to  the  glorious  and  enviable  height,  with  all  her 
daughter  islands  about  her ;  stay  us  in  this  felicity,  let  not  the 
obstinacy  of  our  half-obedience  and  will-worship  bring  forth 
that  viper  of  sedition,  that  for  these  fourscore  years  hath  been 
breeding  to  eat  through  the  entrails  of  our  peace ;  but  let  her 
cast  her  abortive  spawn  without  the  danger  of  this  travailing 
and  throbbing  kingdom  ;  that  we  may  still  remember  in  our 
solemn  thanksgivings,  how  for  us  the  northern  ocean  even  to 
the  frozen  Thule  was  scattered  with  the  proud  shipwrecks  of 
the  Spanish  armada,  and  the  very  maw  of  hell  ransacked,  and 
made  to  give  up  her  concealed  destruction,  ere  she  could  vent 
it  in  that  horrible  and  damned  blast. 

"Then  amidst  the  hymns  and  hallelujahs  of  saints,  some 
one  may  perhaps  be  heard  offering  at  high  strains  in  new  and 
lofty  measure,  to  sing  and  celebrate  thy  divine  mercies  and 
marvellous  judgments  in  this  land  throughout  all  ages." 

Of  the    origin    of  this    portion    of  Milton's    controversial 

writings  we  have  an  account  from  his  own  pen :  "  When  two 

bishops  of  superior  distinction  (Hall  and  Usher)   vindicated 

their   principles  against  some  principal  ministers,   I  thought 

that  on  these  topics,  to  the  consideration  of  which 

ngin  o        J  ^^^  j^^  solely  by  my  love  of  truth  and  my  rev- 

these  writings.  j       j        j  j 

erence  for  Christianity,  I  should  not  probably  write 
worse  than  those  who  were  contending  only  for  their  own 
emolument  and  usurpations."     (How  did  Milton  come  by  the 


CHILLINGWORTH.  28/ 

knowledge  of  this  fact,  that  the  two  venerable  bishops  "  were 
contending  only  for  their  own  emoluments,"  etc.  ?)  "  I  there- 
fore answered  the  one  (Usher)  in  two  books,  of  which  the  first 
is  inscribed  Concerning  Prelatical  Episcopacy^  and  the  other 
Concerning  the  JSIode  of  Ecclesiastical  Government ;  and  I  replied 
to  the  other  (Hall)  in  some  Aniviadversions,  and  soon  after- 
wards in  an  Apology.  On  this  occasion  it  was  supposed  that  I 
brought  a  timely  succor  to  the  ministers,  who  were  hardly  a 
match  for  the  eloquence  of  their  opponents ;  and  from  that 
time  I  was  actively  employed  in  refuting  any  answers  that  ap- 
peared." {Second  Defence  of  the  People  of  Englajid) 

The  point  at  issue  between  Milton  and  the  two  bishops  was 
the  divine  or  the  human  origin  of  episcopacy,  as  a  peculiar 
order  in  the  Church,  distinct  in  kind,  and  pre-eminent  in 
degree.  It  has  been  often  suggested,  as  it  is  obvious  to  re- 
mark, that  Milton's  hostility  to  episcopacy  and  advocacy  of 
the  Presbyterian  parity  seem  to  have  been  called  forth  by 
temporary  causes  :  the  united  support  given  by  the  bishops 
of  his  day  to  the  cause  of  arbitrary  power,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  earnest  struggle  of  the  Puritans  for  popular  rights,  on 
the  other.  An  episcopacy  constituted  after  the  primitive  pat- 
tern, there  is,  I  think,  little  reason  to  believe  that  he  would 
not  at  least  have  acquiesced  in,  if  not  cordially  approved,  as 
having  scriptural  warrant. 

To   the  same  fruitful  year  is  to  be  assigned  the 

..,,,..  ^^  ,        \    ,  t   Chillineworth, 

origmal  publication  of  Chillingworth  s  celebrated       j^ 
Apostolical  Institution  of  Episcopacy  Deinonstrated, 
[No.  236,]  which  comes  down  to  us  with  the  imprimatur  of 
Archbishop  Usher. 

The  argument  for  the  apostolical  institution  of  episcopacy 
which  impressed  the  mind  of  Chillingworth  with  the  weight 
of  a  demonstration,  drawn  up  in  syllogistic  form,  is  this : 
'*  That  governm.ent  which  was  received  universally  in  the 
Church,  either  in  the  apostles*  time,  or  presently  after,  cannot 
with  reason  be  denied  to  be  apostolic."  But  "  episcopal  gov- 
ernment," that  is,  "  an  appointment  of  one  man  of  eminent 
sanctity  and  sufficiency  to  have  the  care  of  all  the  churches 


288         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

within  a  precinct  or  diocese,  and  furnishing  him  with  author- 
ity, (not  absolute  or  arbitrary,  but  regulated  and  bounded  by 
laws,  and  moderated  by  joining  to  him  a  convenient  number 
of  assistants,)  to  the  intent  that  all  the  churches  under  him 
may  be  provided  of  good  and  able  pastors ;  and  that  of  both 
pastors  and  people,  conformity  to  laws  and  performance  of 
their  duties  may  be  required,  under  penalties  not  left  to  dis- 
cretion, but  by  law  appointed  —  "  this  government  was  re- 
ceived universally  in  the  Church,  either  in  the  apostles'  time, 
or  presently  after."  This  proposition  "  is  so  evident  and  un- 
questionable, that  the  most  learned  adversaries  of  this  govern- 
ment do  themselves  confess  it."  To  this  effect  is  cited  the 
free  acknowledgment  of  Peter  Du  Moulin  and  Theodore  Beza, 
the  great  defenders  of  presbytery.  **  Therefore  episcopal  gov- 
ernment cannot  with  reason  be  denied  to  be  apostolic." 

The  demonstration  concludes  in  these  words  :  "  When  I 
shall  see  therefore  all  the  fables  in  the  Metamorphoses  acted, 
and  prove  true  stories  ;  when  I  shall  see  all  the  democracies 
and  aristocracies  in  the  world  lie  down  and  sleep  and  awake 
into  monarchies  ;  then  will  I  begin  to  believe  that  presbyte- 
rial  government,  having  continued  in  the  Church  during  the 
apostles'  times,  should  presently  after  (against  the  apostles' 
doctrine,  and  the  will  of  Christ)  be  whirled  about  like  a  scene 
in  a  mask,  and  transformed  into  episcopacy.  In  the  mean 
time,  while  these  things  remain  thus  incredible,  and  in  human 
reason  impossible,  I  hope  I  shall  have  leave  to  conclude 
thus : 

"  Episcopal  government  is  acknowledged  to  have  been 
universally  received  in  the  Church,  presently  after  the  apos- 
tles' times. 

"  Between  the  apostles'  times  and  this  presently  after,  there 
was  not  time  enough  for,  nor  possibility  of,  so  great  an  altera- 
tion. 

"  And  therefore,  there  was  no  such  alteration  as  is  pre- 
tended. And  therefore,  episcopacy,  being  confessed  to  be  so 
ancient  and  catholic,  must  be  granted  also  to  be  apostolic  : 
Quod  erat  demonstrandum !' 


TAYLOR    ABANDONS     IIOOKER's    POSITION.  289 

The  vehemence  of  Milton's   declamation   in   denunciation 
of  prelacy  was  fairly  matched  by  the  winning  eloquence  of 
Jeremy  Taylor's  argumentation  in  its  defence.     The  Apology 
for  Smcctymmius  of  the  one,  and  the  treatise  Of  the 
Sacred  Order  and  Offices  of  Episcopacy  [No.  223] 
of  the  other,  were  the  products  of  the  same  year. 

The  Apology  is  specially  remarkable  for  the  copiousness  of 
its  reminiscences  of  the  author's  personal  history;  and  "we 
may  well  wonder,"  as  one  of  Milton's  latest  editors  remarks, 
"  that  out  of  a  gladiatorial  controversy  of  this  sanguinary  kind, 
anything  should  have  arisen  so  richly  teeming  with  beautiful 
thoughts,  so  full  of  youthful  and  cheering  reminiscences,  so 
varied,  so  polished,  so  vehemently  eloquent,  as  the  Apology 
for  Smectymnuus,  which,  as  a  noble  and  justifiable  burst  of 
egotism,  has  never,  perhaps,  in  any  language  been  excelled." 

The  work  of  Taylor  is  well  characterized  by  his  biographer 
as   "  a  specimen   of  manly  and   moderate   disputation ;    of  a 
variety  of  learning,  such   as,  even   in  that   learned  age,  few 
other  writers  have  brought  to  bear  upon  the  same 
subject ;  and  of  a  style  vigorous  and  elastic,  which,    ^  ^^  °^  ^'^ 

■'         '  J  -a  >  >     Episcopacy. 

both  in  taste  and  energy,  leaves  far  behind  it  the 

greater  number  of  contemporary  theologians,  and  only  falls 

short  of  that  which  few  indeed  have  equalled,  the  sustained 

and  majestic  harmony  of  Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  Polity."     In 

Taylor's  argument,  however,  there  is  little  that  is  absolutely 

new ;  and  in  the  few  points  on  which  he  occupies 

a  position  different  from  that  of  Hooker,  he  be-     ^]^^^^°"^ 

,,.-••  1  Hookers 

trays  a  marked  mferionty  to  that  great  master,      position. 

Thus,  for  example,  he  falls  back  upon  the  ground 

held  by  the  early  Puritans,  of  "the  absolute  necessity  that 

some  form  of  Church  government  should  be  found  laid  down 

in  Scripture;"  a  position  which  Hooker  had  shown  to  be 

wholly  untenable.     The  reasons,  too,  on  which  Taylor  rests 

his   position,  as   Heber  takes   pains   to  point  out,    "  are  as 

unsound  as  the  position  itself  \s,  prima  facie  ^  questionable."* 

"To  sit  down  in  the  calm  spirit  of  philosophers,  and  examine 

*  Life  of  Taylor,  p.  181,  Lond.,  1828. 
19 


290         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

whether  or  not  there  is  such  a  government  prescribed,  was 
too  humble  a  proceeding  for  the  theologians  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  It  was  assumed  to  be  abundantly  manifest, 
previous  to  all  examination,  that  God  must  have  given  a 
scheme  of  Church  government;  and  every  sect  saw  in  the 
New  Testament  its  own  scheme." 

How  far  he  receded  from  Hooker's  position  on 
of  necessity    ^LnothQT  point  —  the  plea  of  necessity  as  justifying 
presbyterial  ordination  —  will   appear  from  what 
follows : 

"Are  all  ordinations  invalid  which  are  done  by  mere  pres- 
byters ?     What  think  we  of  the  Reformed  Churches  ? 

"  For  my  part,  I  know  not  what  to  think  ;  the  question  hath 
been  so  often  asked,  with  so  much  violence  and  prejudice, 
and  we  are  so  bound  by  public  interest  to  approve  all  that 
they  do,  that  we  have  disabled  ourselves  to  justify  our  own. 
For  we  were  glad  at  first  of  abettors  against  the  errors  of 
the  Roman  Church ;  we  found  these  men  zealous  in  it ;  we 
thanked  God  for  it,  as.  we  had  cause  ;  and  we  were  willing  to 
make  them  recompense  by  endeavoring  to  justify  their  ordina- 
tions, not  thinking  what  would  follow  upon  ourselves :  but 
now  it  has  come  to  that  issue  that  our  own  episcopacy  is 
thought  not  necessary,  because  we  did  not  condemn  the 
ordinations  of  their  presbytery. 

"Why  is  not  the  question  rather  what  we  think  of  the 
primitive  Church,  than  what  we  think  of  the  Reformed 
Churches  ?  Did  the  primitive  councils  and  fathers  do  well 
in  condemning  the  ordinations  made  by  mere  presbyters? 
If  they  did  well,  what  was  a  virtue  in  them  is  no  sin  in  us  : 
if  they  did  ill,  from  what  principle  shall  we  judge  of  the  right 
of  ordinations  ?  Since  there  is  no  example  in  Scripture  of 
any  ordination  made  but  by  apostles  and  bishops ;  and  the 
presbytery  that  imposed  hands  on  Timothy  is  by  all  antiquity 
expounded  either  of  the  office  or  of  a  college  of  presbyters ; 
and  St.  Paul  expounds  it  to  be  an  ordination  made  by  his  own 
hands,  as  appears  by  comparing  the  two  epistles  of  St.  Timo- 
thy together;  and  may  be  so  meant  by  the  principles  of  both 


TAYLOR    ON    THE    PLEA    OF     NECESSITY.  29I 

sides;  for  if  the  names  be  confounded,  the  presbyter  may 
signify  a  bishop;  and  that  they  of  this  presbytery  were  not 
bishops  they  can  never  prove  from  Scripture,  when  all  men 
grant  that  the  names  are  confounded.  So  that  whence  will 
men  take  their  estimate  for,  the  rights  of  ordinations  ?  From 
Scripture  ?  That  gives  it  always  to  apostles  and  bishops,  as 
I  have  proved ;  and  that  a  priest  did  ever  impose  hands  for 
ordination,  can  never  be  shown  from  thence.  From  whence 
then?  From  antiquity?  That  was  so  far  from  licensing 
ordinations  made  by  presbyters  alone,  that  presbyters,  in  the 
primitive  Church,  did  never  join  with  bishops  in  collating  holy 
orders  of  presbyter  and  deacon,  till  the  fourth  Council  of  Car- 
thage ;  much  less  do  it  alone,  rightly,  and  with  effect. 

"  But  will  not  necessity  excuse  them  who  could  not  have 
orders  from  orthodox  bishops  ?  Shall  we  either  sin  against 
our  consciences,  by  subscribing  to  heretical  and  false  resolu- 
tions ill  materid  fidci,  or  else  lose  the  being  of  a  Church,  for 
want  of  episcopal  ordinations  ?  Indeed,  if  the  case  were  just 
thus,  it  was  very  hard  with  good  people  of  the  transmarine 
Churches  ;  but  I  have  here  two  things  to  consider. 

"  First,  I  am  very  willing  to  believe  that  they  would  not  have 
done  anything,  either  of  error  or  suspicion,  but  in  cases  of 
necessity.  But  then  I  consider  that.  M.  Du  Plessis,  a  man  of 
honor  and  great  learning,  does  attest,  that  at  the  first  reform- 
ation, there  were  many  archbishops  and  cardinals  in  German}', 
England,  France,  and  Italy,  that  joined  in  the  reformation, 
whom  they  might,  but  did  not  employ  in  their  ordinations ;  and 
what  necessity  then  can  be  pretended  in  this  case,  I  would 
fain  learn,  that  I  might  make  their  defence.  But,  which  is  of 
more  and  deeper  consideration,  for  this  might  have  been  done 
by  inconsideration  and  irresolution,  as  often  happens  in  the 
beginning  of  great  changes ;  but  it  is  their  constant  and  re- 
solved practice,  at  least  in  France,  that  if  any  returns  to  them, 
they  will  re-ordain  him  by  their  presbytery,  though  he  had 
before  episcopal  ordination,  as  both  their  friends  and  their 
enemies  bear  witness. 

"Secondly,  I  consider  that  necessity  may  excuse  a  personal 


292         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

delinquency;  but  I  never  heard  that  necessity  did  build  a 
Church.  Indeed,  no  man  is  forced,  for  his  own  particular,  to 
commit  a  sin  ;  for  if  it  be  absolutely  a  case  of  necessity,  the 
action  ceaseth  to  be  a  sin ;  but  indeed  if  God  means  to  build 
a  Church  in  any  place,  he  will  do  it  by  means  proportionable 
to  that  end  ;  that  is,  by  putting  them  into  a  possibility  of  doing 
and  acquiring  those  things  which  himself  hath  required  of 
necessity  to  the  constitution  of  the  Church.  So  that,  suppos- 
ing that  ordination  by  a  bishop  is  necessary  for  the  vocation 
of  priests  and  deacons,  as  I  have  proved  it  is,  and,  therefore, 
for  the  founding  or  perpetuating  of  a  Church,  either  God  hath 
given  to  all  Churches  opportunity  and  possibility  of  such  or- 
dinations, and  then,  necessity  of  the  contrary  is  but  pretence 
and  mockery ;  or  if  he  hath  not  given  such  possibility,  then 
there  is  no  Church  there  to  be  either  built  or  continued,  but 
the  candlestick  is  presently  removed. 

"  There  are  divers  stories  in  Rufidnus  to  this  purpose.  When 
^desius  and  Frumentius  were  surprised  by  the  barbarous 
Indians,  they  preached  Christianity  and  baptized  many ;  but, 
themselves  being  but  laymen,  could  make  no  ordinations, 
and  so  not  fix  a  Church.  What  then  was  to  be  done  in  the 
case  ?  .  .  .  Frumentius  comes  to  Alexandria  to  get  a  bishop. 
Athanasius,  being  then  patriarch,  ordained  Frumentius  their 
bishop.  .  .  .  The  same  happened  in  the  case  of  the  Iberians, 
converted  by  a  captive  woman. 

"  Thus  the  case  is  evident,  that  the  want  of  a  bishop  will 
not  excuse  us  from  our  endeavors  of  acquiring  one ;  and 
where  God  means  to  found  a  Church,  there  he  will  supply  them 
with  those  means  and  ministries  which  himself  hath  made  of 
ordinary  and  absolute  necessity.  ...  If  an  ordinary  necessity 
will  not  excuse  this,  will  not  an  extraordinary  calling  justify 
it  ?  yea,  most  certainly,  could  we  but  see  an  ordinary  proof 
for  an  extraordinary  calling,  viz.,  an  evident  prophecy,  demon- 
stration of  miracles,  certainty  of  reason,  clarity  of  sense,  or 
anything  that  might  make  faith  of  an  extraordinary  mission. 

"  But  shall  we  then  condemn  those  few  of  the  reformed 
Churches  whose  ordinations  always  have  been  without  bishops? 


TAYLOR    ON    THE    PLEA     OF    NECESSITY.  293 

No,  indeed,  that  must  not  be ;  they  stand  or  fall  to  their  own 
Master.  And  though  I  cannot  justify  their  ordinations,  yet 
what  degree  their  necessity  is  of,  what  their  desire  of  episcopal 
ordinations  may  do  for  their  personal  excuse,  and  how  far  a 
good  life  and  a  Catholic  belief  may  lead  a  m.an  in  the  way  to 
heaven,  although  the  forms  of  external  communion  be  not  ob- 
served, I  cannot  determine.  For  aught  I  know,  their  condi- 
tion is  the  same  with  that  of  the  Church  of  Pergamus :  *I 
know  thy  works,  and  where  thou  dwellest,  even  where  Satan's 
seat  is  ;  and  thou  boldest  fast  my  faith,  and  hast  not  denied  my 
name  :  ncvertJiclcss  some  few  tilings  I  Jiave  against  thee!  " 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Erastianism,  in  Westminster  Assembly — John  Selden  its  Leading  Advo- 
cate— His  Exposition  of  Matt,  xviii.  15-17 — The  Ruling  Eldership  — 
Prolonged  Discussion  — Calvin's  Theory  Rejected  —  Judgment  of  Blon- 
del  and  Vitringa  —  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  —  Rise  of  Qua- 
kerism —  Barclay's  Apology  —  Doctrine  of  the  Church  —  Dr.  Hammond 
—  Four  Dissertations — Annotations  on  the  New  Testament  —  Lead- 
ing the  way  to  the  Reconstruction  of  the  Ordinal  —  1 661-2. 

THE  prolonged  debates  on  questions  of  Church  discipline 
in  the  Westminster  Assembly  (1643- 1649)  first  gave  promi- 
nence in  England  to  the  theory  of  Church  authority  thence- 
forward  popularly  known   as   Erastianism.     The 
views  of  Erastus,  as  developed  in  a  posthumous 
work  On  Excommtmication^  [No.  in,]  first  published  in  1589, 
may  be  briefly  stated  thus  :  The  pastoral  office  is  similar  to  that 
of  a  lecturer  in  divinity  — an  office  not  oi  authority 

Erastianism.        .  ,  .      ,     ,  1       •       1  r 

of  any  kind,  but  exclusively  one  of  persuasion. 
Christian  ordinances,  baptism,  the  eucharist,  etc.,  are  free  and 
open  to  all  without  distinction,  the  Church,  or  the  minister 
representing  it,  having  authority  to  define  the  qualifications 
for  communion,  but  having  no  power  to  inhibit  from  it ;  the 
administration  of  penal  laws  belonging  exclusively  to  the  civil 
magistrate  ;  and  the  proper  ground  of  excommunication,  or 
exclusion  from  the  privileges  of  Church  communion,  being 
not  vice,  or  any  species  of  immorality,  but  dissent  from  the 
Church's  doctrinal  teaching  —  not  misconduct,  but  heterodoxy. 
As  this  theory  obviously  involves,  in  its  ultimate  develop- 
ment, the  abolition  of  all  ecclesiastical  or  spiritual  jurisdiction 
—  the  complete  subjection  of  the  Church  to  the  civil  power  — 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  term  Erastianism  came  now  to  be 
popularly  applied,  as  a  term  of  reproach,  to  that  theory  of 

294 


EXPOSITION    OF    MATTHEW   XVIII.  295 

Church  authority  which  maintains  the  supremacy  of  the  civil 
power  over  the  ecclesiastical,  alike  in  matters  of  doctrine  and 
discipline  —  the  absolute  subjection  of  the  Church  to  the  con- 
trol of  the  State. 

The  advantage  claimed  for  this  theory  by  its  English  advo- 
cates was  that  it  precluded  the  existence  of  an  impermm  in 
imperio,  or  one  government  within  another  of  a  distinct  and 
independent  nature.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  it  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  a  reproduction,  under  another  form,  of  the 
papal  despotism,  combining,  as  it  does,  in  one  irresponsible 
power,  civil  and  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  and  by  the  combi- 
nation destroying  both  civil  and  religious  liberty. 

In  the  Westminster  Assembly,  the  leading  advocate  of  Eras- 
tianism  was  the  celebrated  Selden,  whose  exposition  of  the 
classical  passage,  Matt,  xviii.   15-17,  in   the  interest  of  the 
Erastian  scheme,  is  reported  by  the  faithful  pen 
of  Lightfoot.     While  the  Independent  disputant 
labored  to  prove  that  the  Church,  in  this  text,  is  not  a  civil 
court,  not  a  Jewish  sanhedrim,  not  a  presbytery  or  synod,  nor 
a  national  church,  but  a  particular  congregation  only;    and 
the  Presbyterian  advocate,  that  the  term  stood  for  the  Church 
in  no  one  single  application,  exclusively ;  neither  for  a  single 
congregation  nor  for  a  national  church,  nor  for  the  Church 
universal  only ;  but  for  either,  or  for  all  in  turn,  as  the  occa- 
sion might  require ;  Selden  entered  into  a  learned  argument 
to  show  that  the  passage  furnished  no  support  for 
ecclesiastical'jurisdiction.     He  contended,  with  an  Exposition  of 

r  1  •    •      1  1  Matt,  xviii. 

imposing  display  of  rabbinical  lore,  that  the  pas-       15-17. 

sage  related  solely  to  the  ordinary  practice  of  the 
Jews  in  their  common  courts  :  **  It  results  to  this  :  if  an  Israelite 
offend  thee,  die  ecclesice,  tell  the  sanhedrim."  To  the  objec- 
tion. But  what  means,  "Let  him  be  unto  thee  an  heathen"? 
Selden  answered,  "  This  indeed  may  be  excommunication  by 
the  court;  or,  by  himself:  'If  thy  brother  offend,'  etc.,  after 
such  and  such  admonition,  sue  him  at  the  court,  or  else  in- 
form of  him  there;  if  he  will  not  obey  the  court,  do  thou 
excommunicate  him." 


296         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

One  of  the  questions  that  engaged  the  most  earnest  and 

prolonged   consideration   of  the   Assembly  was   that   of  the 

ruling  eldership.     The  discussion  on  the  subject,  as  we  learn 

from  the  journal  of  Lightfoot,  was  continued  in 

1643-        ti^e   Grand   Committee,   with    some   interruption, 

u  ing  e    er-  ^j-^j-^^gj^  ^  period  of  thirty  days.     The  proposition 

introduced  for  discussion  gave  distinct  expression 

to  the  theory  of  Calvin :  "  That  besides  those  presbyters  that 

rule  well,  and  labor  in  the  word  and  doctrine,  there  be  other 

presbyters  who  especially  apply  themselves  to  ruling,  though 

they  labor  not  in  the  word  and  doctrine." 

The  unanimous  conclusions  of  the  committee,  as  recorded 
by  Lightfoot,  contain  no  reference  to  I  Tim.  v.  17,  and  make 

no  mention  oi  elders,  in  connection  with  the  ruling 
Dec   1 1 

office:   "I.  That  Christ  hath  instituted  a  govern- 
ment and  governors  ecclesiastical  in  the  Church. 

"  2.  That  Christ  hath  furnished  some  in  His  Church  with 
gifts  for  government,  and  with  commission  to  execute  the 
same  when  called  thereunto. 

"  3.  That  it  is  agreeable  to  and  warranted  by  the  word  of 
God  that  some  others  besides  the  ministers  of  the  word  be  Church 
governors,  to  join  with  the  ministers  in  the  government  of  the 
Church."  (Rom.  xii.  7,  8  ;   i  Cor.  xii.  28.) 

A  year  later,  when  these  conclusions  were  submitted  to  the 
consideration  of  the  Assembly,  preparatory  to  their  transmis- 
sion to  Parliament,  a  fresh  debate  arose  on  the 
/  ^'        question  whether  the  lay  rulers  should  be  called 
"ruling   elders"  or  no  —  "a  very  sad   and   long 
discussion,"  writes  the  chronicler ;  "  at  last  it  was  determined 
by  vote,  thus  —  siicli  as  in  the  Reformed  Churches  are  commonly 
called  'elders'  "     Thus  Calvin's  theory  of  the  rul- 
^r^ecte/^^  ing  eldership  finds  no  support  in  the  action  of 
this  great  Presbyterian   council ;   nay,  is  deliber- 
ately rejected  by  it. 

But  already,  before  this  decision  of  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly, the  same  position  had  been  maintained  by  the  famous 
champions  of  Presbytery  known   under  the   name  of  Sniec- 


WESTMINSTER    CONFESSION.  297 

tymmnis^  [No.  195,]  who  refrain  from  quoting  "the  three  known 
texts  of  Scripture  produced  by  some  for  the  estabhshing  of 
governing  elders  in  the  Church,"  and  conclude 
the  argument  thus  :  '*  First,  in  the  ancient  Church 
there  were  some  called  seniors ;  secondly,  these  seniors  were 
not  clergymen ;  thirdly,  they  had  a  stroke  in  governing  the 
Church,  and  managing  the  affairs  thereof;  fourthly,  seniors 
were  distinguished  from  tJie  rest  of  tlie  peopled 

To  the  same  effect  are  the  recorded  judgments  on  this  ques- 
tion of  some  of  the  ablest  advocates  of  Presbytery  in  other 
lands.  Thus  the  renowned  Blondel,  in  his  treatise  De  Jure 
Plebis,  etc.,  [No.   258,]    written   to  vindicate  the 

•    !  r    1       1    •  1-1  /•    TudsTment  of 

right  of  the  laity  to  a  share  in  the  government  of  Blondel 
the  Church,  protests  against  the  novelty  of  apply- 
ing the  text  —  I  Tim.  v.  17  —  to  the  lay  rulers  of  the  Reformed 
Churches,  as  having  no  support  in  ancient  precedent,  and  being 
without  any  plea  of  necessity.  "  The  institution  and  function 
of  these  officers,"  he  declares,  "  must  be  established  on  other 
foundations  —  the  practice  of  the  apostles  and  of  the  first 
ages  of  the  Church."  So  also,  and  with  equal  explicitness, 
ViTRiNGA  :  De  Syn.  Vet.  ii.  3,  482,  sq. 

After  four  years  of  careful  deliberation,  the  Westminster 
Assembly  gave  to  the  world  the  mature  fruit  of  its  protracted 
labors  in  the  form  of  a  systematic  Confession  of 
Faith,  ratified  (with  the  exception  of  the  thirtieth, 
the  thirty-first,  and  the  twentieth  chapter,  section  four,)  a  year 
later,  (1648,)  after  thorough  examination,  by  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment. 

This  important  document,  the  doctrinal  standard  of  all  the 
Presbyterian  churches,  properly  so  named,  embodies  the  fol- 
lowing statements  in  relation  to  the  Church  :  "  I. 
The  Catholic  or  Universal  Church,  which   is   in-    „    .    . 

'  Confession. 

visible,  consists  of  the  whole  number  of  the  elect, 
that  have  been,  are,  or  shall  be  gathered  into  one,  under  Christ 
the  head  thereof;  and  is  the  spouse,  the  body,  the  fulness  of 
him  that  filleth  all  in  all. 

'*  II.  The  visible  Church,  which  is  also  Catholic  or  Univer- 


298  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

sal  under  the  gospel,  (not  confined  to  one  nation  as  before 
under  the  law,)  consi^sts  of  all  those  throughout  the  world,  that 
profess  the  true  religion,  together  with  their  children  ;  and  is 
the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  house  and  family 
of  God,  out  of  which  there  is  no  ordinary  possibility  of  salva- 
tion. 

"  III.  Unto  this  Catholic  visible  Church  Christ  hath  given 
the  ministry,  oracles,  and  ordinances  of  God,  for  the  gathering 
and  perfecting  of  the  saints,  in  this  life,  to  the  end  of  the 
world;  and  doth  by  his  own  presence  and  spirit,  according  to 
his  promise,  make  them  effectual  thereunto. 

"  IV.  This  Catholic  Church  hath  been  sometimes  more, 
sometimes  less  visible.  And  particular  churches,  which  are 
members  thereof,  are  more  or  less  pure,  according  as  the 
doctrine  of  the  gospel  is  taught  and  embraced,  ordinances 
administered,  and  public  worship  performed  more  or  less 
purely  in  them. 

"  V.  The  purest  churches  under  heaven  are  subject  both  to 
mixture  and  error ;  and  some  have  so  degenerated  as  to  be- 
come no  churches  of  Christ,  but  synagogues  of  Satan.  Never- 
theless there  shall  be  always  a  Church  on  earth,  to  worship 
God  according  to  his  will. 

**  VI.  There  is  no  other  head  of  the  Church  but  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Nor  can  the  Pope  of  Rome  in  any  sense  be 
head  thereof;  but  is  that  Antichrist,  that  man  of  sin,  and  son 
of  perdition,  that  exalteth  himself,  in  the  Church,  against 
Christ,  and  all  that  is  called  God."  (Chap,  xxv.) 

The  statements  of  the  Confession  in  relation  to  the  Power 
of  the  Keys  and  Church  Synods,  which  —  the  former  as  unac- 
ceptable to  the  Erastians,  the  latter  as  offensive  to  the  Inde- 
pendents—  were  "  recommitted  "  by  the  Parliament,  are  to  the 
following  effect :  "  The  Lord  Jesus,  as  King  and  Head  of  his 
Church,  hath  herein  appointed  a  government  in  the  hand  of 
church-officers,  distinct  from  the  civil  magistrate. 

"  To  these  officers  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  are 
committed  ;  by  virtue  whereof  they  have  power  respectively 
to  retain  and  remit  sins,  to  shut  that  kingdom  against  the  im- 


WESTMINSTER    CONFESSION.  299 

penitent,  both  by  the  word  and  censures ;  and  to  open  it 
unto  penitent  sinners,  by  the  ministry  of  the  gospel,  and  by 
absolution   from    censures,   as  occasion  shall  require."  (Chap. 

XXX.) 

•'  For  the  better  government  and  further  edification  of  the 
Church,  there  ought  to  be  such  assemblies  as  are  commonly 
called  synods  or  councils:  and  it  belongeth  to  the  overseers 
and  other  rulers  of  the  particular  churches,  by  virtue  of  their 
office,  and  the  power  which  Christ  hath  given  them  for  edifi- 
cation, and  not  for  destruction,  to  appoint  such  assemblies ; 
and  to  convene  together  in  them,  as  often  as  they  shall  judge 
it  expedient  for  the  good  of  the  Church. 

"  It  belongeth  to  synods  and  councils,  ministerially,  to  de- 
termine controversies  of  faith,  and  cases  of  conscience ;  to  set 
down  rules  and  directions  for  the  better  ordering  of  the  public 
worship  of  God,  and  government  of  his  Church,  etc. 

"  All  synods  or  councils  since  the  apostles'  times,  whether 
general  or  particular,  may  err,  and  many  have  erred."  .  .  .  They 
"  are  to  handle  or  conclude  nothing  but  that  which  is  ecclesi- 
astical ;  and  are  not  to  intermeddle  with  civil  affairs,  .  .  .  un- 
less by  way  of  humble  petition,  in  cases  extraordinary." 
(Chap,  xxxi.) 

On  the  subject  of  the  ministry,  or  "  the  officers  of  the 
Church,"  the  discussions  of  the  Assembly  issued  in  the  follow- 
ing conclusions,  ratified  by  the  Parliament,  and  approved 
(164.5)  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland: 
"  The  officers  which  Christ  hath  appointed  for  the  edification 
of  his  Church,  and  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  are,  some  ex- 
traordinary, as  apostles,  evangelists,  and  prophets,  which  are 
ceased.  Others  ordinary  and  perpetual,  as  pastors,  teachers, 
and  other  church-governors,  and  deacons." 

To  the  office  of  pastor  it  belongs  —  "  I.  To  pray  for  and 
with  his  flock,  as  the  mouth  of  the  people  of  God.  2.  To  read 
the  Scripture  publicly.  3.  To  feed  the  flock  by  preaching  of 
the  word.  4.  To  catechize.  5.  To  administer  the  sacraments. 
6.  To  bless  the  people  from  God.  7.  To  take  care  of  the 
poor. 


300         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

*'The  teacher  or  doctor  is  also  a  minister  of  the  word  as 
well  as  the  pastor,  and  hath  power  of  administration  of  the 
sacraments.  .  .  .  Where  be  several  ministers  in  the  same  con- 
gregation, they  may  be  designed  to  several  employments, 
according  to  the  different  gifts  in  which  each  of  them  doth 
most  excel.  And  he  that  doth  more  excel  in  exposition  of 
Scriptures,  in  teaching  sound  doctrine,  and  in  convincing  gain- 
sayers,  than  he  doth  in  application,  and  is  accordingly  em- 
ployed therein,  may  be  called  a  teacher  or  doctor.  Where 
there  is  but  one  minister  in  a  particular  congregation,  he  is  to 
perform,  so  far  as  he  is  able,  the  whole  work  of  the  ministry. 

"  Other  CJmrch  governors.  —  Christ  .  .  .  hath  furnished  some 
in  his  Church,  besides  the  ministers  of  the  word,  with  gifts  for 
government,  and  with  commission  to  execute  the  same  when 
called  thereunto,  who  are  to  join  with  the  minister  in  the 
government  of  the  Church,  which  officers  Reformed  Churches 
co7nmonly  call  elders!'  This  guarded  language  in  designating 
the  governing  officers  of  the  Church  joined  with  the  minister, 
as  those  commonly  called  elders,  sufficiently  indicates  the  mind 
of  the  Assembly,  that  they  were  not  properly  so  called. 

"  The  Scripture  doth  hold  out  deacons  as  distinct  officers  in 
the  Church ;  whose  office  is  peipetual,  and  to  which  it  belongs 
to  take  special  care  in  distributing  to  the  necessities  of  the 
poor." 

The  year  1647  marks  an  epoch  in  our  history  as  the  date 
of  the  first  beginnings  of  that  purest  form  of  Christian  mysti- 
cism, known  as  Quakerism.  George  Fox  set  out  upon  his 
self-denying  career  of  Church  reform  by  proclaim- 
^  ^'^'  ing,  as  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  newly  re- 
vealed faith,  that  "  it  is  not  the  Scriptures,  but  the  Holy  Spirit, 
by  which  opinions  and  religions  are  to  be  tried."  And  as  a 
manifestation  of  the  Spirit  is  vouchsafed  to  all  without  distinc- 
tion, every  individual  believer  is  divinely  qualified  and  called, 
according  to  the  measure  of  his  gifts,  to  minister  in  the  Church, 
independently  of  any  human  vocation  or  appointment. 

Robert  Barclay,  the  accredited  expounder  of  the  orthodox 
Quaker  system,  whose  Apology  holds,  by  common  consent, 


BARCLAY   S    APOLOGY.  3OI 

the  place  of  a  symbolical  book,  defines  the  Church  as  "  the 
society,  gathering,  or   company  of  such   as  God  , 

hath  called  out  of  the  world  and  worldly  spirit,  to 
walk  in  his  light  and  life.  The  Church  so  defined  is  to  be 
considered"  under  two  aspects.  First,  "as  it  comprehends 
all  that  are  thus  called  and  gathered  truly  by  God,  both  such 
as  are  yet  in  this  inferior  world,  and  such  as,  having  already 
laid  down  the  earthly  tabernacle,  are  passed  into  their  heav- 
enly mansions,  which  together  do  make  up  the  one  Catholic 
Church.  . .  .  Out  of  which  Church  we  freely  acknowledge  there 
can  be  no  salvation  ;  because  under  this  Church  and  its  de- 
nomination are  comprehended  all,  and  as  many,  of  whatsoever 
nation,  kindred,  tongue,  or  people  they  be,  though  outwardly 
strangers,  and  remote  from  those  who  profess  Christ  and 
Christianity  in  words,  and  have  the  benefit  of  the  Scriptures,  as 
become  obedient  to  the  holy  light  and  testimony  of  God  in 
their  hearts,  so  as  to  become  sanctified  by  it,  and  cleansed 
from  the  evils  of  their  ways.  For  this  is  the  universal  or 
Catholic  Spirit  by  which  many  are  called  from  all  the  four  cor- 
ners of  the  earth,  and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob.  .  .  .  There  may  be  members  therefore  of  this  Catholic 
Church  both  among  heathen,  Turks,  Jews,  and  all  the  several 
sorts  of  Christians."  "  The  Church  in  this  respect  hath  been 
in  being  in  all  generations,  .  .  .  though  many  times  not  much 
observed  ;  and  therefore  though  still  in  being,  hath  been  often- 
times as  it  were  invisible,  in  that  it  hath  not  come  under  the 
observation  of  the  men  of  the  world. 

"  Secondly,  the  Church  is  to  be  considered  as  it  signifies  a 
certain  number  of  persons  gathered  by  God's  Spirit,  and  by 
the  testimony  of  some  of  his  servants  raised  up  for  that  end, 
unto  the  belief  of  the  true  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith, 
who,  through  their  hearts  being  united  by  the  same  love,  and 
their  understandings  informed  in  the  same  truths,  gather,  meet, 
and  assemble  together  to  wait  upon  God,  to  worship  Him,  and 
to  bear  a  joint  testimony  for  the  truth  against  error,  suffering 
for  the  same,  and  so  becoming  through  this  fellowship  as  one 
family  and   household   in  certain  respects,  do  each  of  them 


302         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

teach,  instruct,  and  care  for  one  another,  according  to  their 
several  measures  and  attainments.  .  .  .  To  be  a  member  of  a 
particular  church,  as  the  inward  calling  of  God  by  his  light  in 
the  heart  is  indispensably  necessary,  so  is  also  the  outward 
profession  of,  and  belief  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  those  holy  truths 
delivered  by  his  Spirit  in  the  Scriptures ;  seeing  the  testimony 
of  the  Spirit  recorded  in  the  Scriptures  doth  answer  the  testi- 
mony of  the  same  Spirit  in  the  heart,  even  as  face  answereth 
face  in  a  glass."  [Prop.  x.  ii.-iv.) 

Among  the  ardent  supporters  of  Anglican  Episcopacy  in 
this  its  season  of  humiliation,  whose  writings  prepared  the  way 
for  the  reaction  of  1662,  the  next  place  after  Taylor  must  un- 
questionably be   assigned  to   Henry  Hammond, 

Henry  . 

Hammond  pronounced  by  Bishop  Heber  *'  not  inferior  to 
Taylor  either  in  judgment  or  learning."  Of  his 
^'*  numerous  controversial  treatises  on  questions  con- 
nected with  Church  discipline,  the  most  noted  is  a  volume 
written  in  answer  to  Blondel's  Hicronyini  Scntentice^  and 
Walonis  Messalini  dc  Episcopis  et  Prcsbyicris  of  Salmasius; 
entitled  Quatiwr  Dissertationcs,  etc.,  [No.  26^^  Four  Disserta- 
tions ill  wJiich  the  Rights  of  the  Episcopate  are  set  forth  from  Holy 
Scriptures  and  Primitive  Ajitiqidty,  etc. 

Of  the  four  dissertations  composing  this  volume,  \.\-\q  first  is 

introductory,   "Of  Antichrist;  of  the   Mystery   of  Iniquity; 

of  Diotrephes,  as  Developed    in    the    Apostolic    AgQ-/'    the 

second   treats  "  Of  Ignatius,    and    his   Testimony 

sertations      Compared  with  Jerome's  Opinion  ;  "  the  tJurd,  "  Of 

all  the  Passages  in  the  Gospels  that  refer  to  the 

Form  of  Church  Government;"  \h& fourth,  "Of  the  Passages 

in  the  Acts  and  Epistles  which  refer  to  the  same  subject." 

The  author  was  led,  we  are  informed  by  his  biographer,  to 
undertake  the  composition  of  this  work  in  Latin  by  circum- 
stances of  which  he  gives  the  following  account:  "Archbishop 
Usher  having  received  from  Blondel  a  letter  of  exception 
against  his  edition  of  Ignatius,  he  communicated  it  to  Dr. 
Hammond,  desiring  his  opinion  of  several  passages  in  it.  In 
reply,  the  doctor  wrote  a  pretty  full  exposition  of  his  views, 


ANNOTATIONS    ON    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  303 

promising  a  yet  fuller  one,  if  it  should  be  deemed  desirable. 
Usher  at  once  exacted  the  performance  of  the  promise ;  and 
the  work  thus  produced  furnished  the  **  materials  for  a  great 
part  of  the  Dissertations y  The  primate's  letter  (dated  July  21, 
1649,)  ^s  deserving  of  record :  "  I  have  read  with  great  delight 
and  content  your  accurate  answer  to  the  objections  made 
against  the  credit  of  Ignatius  his  Epistles,  for  which  I  do  most 
heartily  thank  you,  and  am  moved  thereby  farther  to  entreat 
you  to  publish  to  the  world  in  Latin  what  you  have  already 
written  in  English  against  this  objector,  and  that  other  (Sal- 
masius)  who  for  your  pains  hath  rudely  requited  you  with  the 
base  appellation  of  Nebula  for  the  assertion  of  episcopacy ;  to 
the  end  that  it  may  no  longer  be  credited  abroad  that  those 
two  have  beaten  down  this  calling,  that  the  defence  thereof  is 
now  deserted  by  all  men,  as  by  Lud.  Capellus  is  intimated  in 
his  thesis  of  ChurcJi  Government,  at  Sedan,  lately  published, 
which  I  leave  unto  your  serious  consideration,  and  all  your 
godly  labors  to  the  blessing  of  our  good  God,  in  whom  I 
evermore  rest.  Your  very  loving  friend  and  brother,  Ja.  Ar- 
machanus." 

The  Dissertations  were  answered  by  the  Provincial  Assembly 
of  London,  in  a  book  entitled  Jus  Divinum  Ministcrii Evangelici. 
In  reply,  Hammond  wrote  a  "Vindication"  of  the  Disserta- 
tions. Hammond's  statement  of  the  question,  as  Hunt  has 
well  pointed  out,  "  is  undoubtedly  the  clearest  that  had  ever 
hitherto  been  made.  It  left  the  course  of  the  argument  to  be 
an  inquiry  into  the  facts  as  they  could  be  determined  from 
Scripture  and  the  writings  of  the  age  succeeding  that  of  the 
apostles."   {Relig.  Thought  in  Eng.,  i.  319.) 

Yet  more  important  in  its  influence  in  the  dcvelopnient  of 
opinion  on  the  episcopal  question  was  Hammond's  Annota- 
tions on  the  New  Testament ;   a  work  which  seems 
to  have  contributed  largely  to  that  reversal  of  the   ^""^^^*';'"5 

.      ,  r  ,.,...  ,  ,         on  the  New 

judgment  of  our  earlier  divines   in  regard  to  the    Testament. 

interpretation  of  the  terms  bishop,    and  elder  or 

presbyter^  as    interchangeable   titles    in  the    New  Testament, 


304         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

which  obtained  in  the  next  generation,  issuing  in  the  recon- 
struction of  the  ordinal  in  its  present  form. 

Thus,  in  a  note  on  Phil.  i.  i  :  "The  word  sTriffxoiro?,  bisliop, 
in  the  Old  and  New  Testament  notes  prefecture,  or  ndiiig 
poiver  in  the  Church.     But  whether  this  belonged  to  singular 

^  persons,  one  in  each  city  and  region  adjoininrf,  or 
Exposition  of  ^  '  ^         ,  /  t  ,, 

Phil  i  I       ^^  ^  number  of  such,  rulmg  together  as  colleagues, 

hath  been  of  late  controverted  by  some,  and  this 
place  which  mentions  in  Philippi  bishops  in  the  plural,  hath 
been  a  principal  testimony  to  conclude  that  in  one  church 
there  were  many  bishops.  This,  if  it  were  granted,  and  con- 
sequently, that  bishops  here  denote  no  other  than  those  whom 
we  now  call  presbyters,  would  be  of  no  force  to  infer  this  con- 
clusion—  that  churches  in  the  apostles'  times  were  ruled  not 
by  single  bishops,  but  many  presbyters  ;  because,  first,  it  were 
possible  that  the  apostle  himself  might  at  this  time  retain 
that  supreme  episcopal  power  in  his  own  hands,  and  though 
absent  in  body,  yet  by  letters  being  present  in  spirit  exercise  that 
power  over  them.  Or,  second,  if  the  apostles  had  constituted 
a  bishop  over  them,  yet  't  is  possible  that  at  the  writing  this 
epistle,  the  chair  might  be  vacant,  or  that  the  bishop  might  be 
absent.  And  indeed  Epaphroditus,  who  is  by  Theodoret  and 
others  affirmed  to  be  Bishop  of  Philippi,  .  . .  appears  (iv.  1 8) 
to  have  been  with  Paul  at  this  time,  when  he  wrote  the  epistle, 
.  .  .  and  to  have  carried  the  epistle  to  them.  .  .  .  But  there  is 
no  need  of  such  answers  as  these  to  avoid  the  force  of  this 
argument.  Philippi  being  a  metropolis,  under  which  were 
many  other  churches,  which  had  each  of  them  a  bishop,  all 
these  bishops  are  here  meant  by  sctktxocoi  in  the  plural,  as  this 
epistle  was  written  to  all  those  cities  or  churches,  and  not 
only  to  that  of  Philippi.  ...  As  the  word  -rpstr^^uTspci,  elders,  is 
a  note  of  prefecture,  and  so  may  fitly  belong  to  the  bishop  in 
each  city,  [N'ote  on  Acts  xi.  30,)  in  all  the  places  of  the  New 
Testament,  so  there  is  little  reason  to  doubt  of  the  word 
e'TTjo'xo'jroi,  bishops.  The  first  mention  of  it  is  Acts  xx.  28,  where 
those  who  had  been  called  elders  of  the  Church,  (v.  17,)  are 
bishops  of  the  flock,  set  over  it  by  the  Holy  Ghost :  where,  if 


RECONSTRUCTION    OF    THE    ORDINAL.  305 

the  flock  were  the  Christians  of  any  one  city,  there  might  be 
some  pretence  that  the  ciders  or  bishops  in  the  plural  might 
be  those  which  are  now  called  presbyters.  But  it  is  apparent 
that  the  flock  is  the  Christians  of  all  Asia,  of  which  it  is  said 
(xix.  10)  that  all  that  dwelt  in  Asia  heard  the  luord  of  the 
Lord.  .  .  .  And  consequently  the  elders  or  bishops  there  are  the 
bishops  of  all  Asia,  at  least  those  that  belonged  to  Ephesus 
as  their  metropolis." 

And  on  Acts  xi.  30 :  **  This  word  Tpsfr^SuTepoi,  elders,  being 
made  use  of  by  the  apostles,  and  writers  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, is  affixed  to  the  governors  of  the  Christian  Church,  the 
several  bishops  of  several  cities,  answerable  to  the 
rulers  of  thousands,  or  patriarchs,  which  being 
first  used  among  the  Jews,  are  in  the  Christian  Church  the 
ordinary  title  of  bishops.  And  although  this  title  of  elders 
has  been  also  extended  to  a  second  order  in  the  Church,  and 
is  now  only  in  use  for  them,  under  the  name  of  presbyters,  yet 
in  the  Scripture  times  it  belonged  principally,  if  not  alone,  to 
bishops ;  there  being  no  evidence  that  any  of  that  second 
order  were  then  instituted,  though  soon  after,  before  the 
writing  of  Ignatius' s  Epistles,  there  were  such  instituted  in  all 
churches." 

That  the  changes  introduced  into  the  ordinal, 
,  .     ,      -  .  I    ^^  \  1  ,  Reconstruction 

m  the  period  of  reaction,  {\bb\-2,sq.,)  have  been  of  the  Ordinal. 

justly  termed  a  reconstruction  of  the  office,  may 

appear  from  the  following  statement  of  facts : 

I.  In  the  Preface  to  the  ordinal,  instead  of  these  words  — 

"  No  man  (iiot  being  at  this  present  bishop,  priest,  nor  deacon) 

shall  execute  any  of  them  (these  orders)  except  he  be  called, 

tried,  examined,  and  admitted,  according  to  the  form  hereafter 

following"  —  as  found  in  the  Preface  of  1549-52,  —  there  were 

now  substituted  the  following :  "  No  man  shall  be  accounted 

or  taken  to  be  a  lawful  bishop,  priest,  or  deacon,  in  the  Church 

of  England,  or  suffered  to  execute  any  of  the  said  functions, 

except  he  be  called,  tried,  examined,  and  admitted  thereunto, 

according  to  the  form  hereafter  following,  or  hath  had  formerly 

episcopal  consecration  or  ordination!' 

20 


306         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

II.  In  the  Form  of  Ordering  Priests,  instead  of  the  portion 
of  Scripture  appointed  for  the  Epistle  in  the  office  of  1549, 
viz.,  Acts  XX.  17-35  :  "Take  heed  therefore,"  etc.;  or,  i  Tim. 
ii.  1-16:  "This  is  a  true  saying.  If  a  man  desire  the  office 
of  a  BISHOP,"  etc.,  is  substituted  Eph.  iv.  7-13  :  "And  he  gave 
some  apostles,"  etc.,  i  Tim.  iii.  1-7,  being  left  out.  Instead  of 
Matt,  xxviii.  18-20 ;  or,  John  x,  1-16 ;  or,  John  xx.  19-23  — the 
Gospel  in  the  office  of  1549  —  is  substituted  in  the  revised  Form 
Matt,  ix  36-38;  or,  John  x.  1-16;  John  xx.  19-23  being  omit- 
ted, and  transferred  to  the  "  Form  of  Consecrating  a  Bishop." 

The  original  formula  accompanying  the  imposition  of 
hands :  "  Receive  the  Holy  Ghost ;  whose  sins  thou  dost  for- 
give, etc.,  is  changed  into  "  Receive  the  Holy  Ghost  for  the 
office  and  work  of  a  priest  in  the  Church  of  God,  now  com- 
mitted unto  thee  by  the  imposition  of  our  hands.  Whose 
sins  thou  dost  forgive,"  etc. 

III.  In  the  Form  of  Consecrating  a  Bishop,  while  the  office 
of  1549  has  I  Tim.  iii.  1-7,  in  common  with  the  office  of  ordering 
priests,  for  the  Epistle  ;  and  John  xxi.  15-17  ;  or,  John  x.  1-16 ; 
also  in  common  with  the  office  just  named ;  the  revised  form  of 
1661-2  has  I  Tim.  iii.  1-7  ;  or.  Acts  xx.  17-35,  for  the  Epistle  ; 
and  for  the  Gospel,  John  xxi.  15-17;  or,  John  xx.  19-23;  or. 
Matt  xxviii.  18-20. 

For  the  original  formula,  "  Take  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  re- 
member that  thou  stir  up  the  grace  of  God  which  is  in  thee," 
etc.,  is  substituted,  "  Receive  the  Holy  Ghost  for  the  office  and 
work  of  a  bishop  in  the  Church  of  God,  now  committed  7mto 
thee  by  the  imposition  of  onr  hands.  In  the  name  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Amen.  And  remem- 
ber that  thou  stir  up  the  grace  of  God  which  is  given  thee  by 
this  imposition  of  our  hands;  for  God  hath  not  given  us  the 
spirit  of  fear,"  etc. 

IV.  The  changes  made  in  the  phraseology  of  the  titles  pre- 
fixed to  the  ordinal,  and  to  the  offices  severally  composing  it, 
are  specially  noteworthy  :  "  The  form  and  manner  of  making, 
ordaining,  and  consecrating  archbishops,  bishops,  priests,  and 
deacons ;  the  form  and  manner  of  making  deacons ;  the  form 


RECONSTRUCTION    OF    THE    ORDINAL.  3O7 

and  manner  of  ordering  priests;  the  form  o^  ordaining  or  con- 
secrating a  bishop." 

The  most  significant  changes  or  additions  are  marked  in  the 
foregoing  quotation's  by  the  italics. 

V.  In  the  formula  to  be  used  in  presenting  a  candidate  for 
ordination  to  the  presbyterate,  the  expression,  '*  the  order  of 
priesthood  "  is  found  ahke  in  both  offices —  1549  and  1661-2  ; 
while  in  that  prescribed  for  presenting  a  priest  for  consecra- 
tion to  the  episcopate,  there  is  the  addition  or  interpolation  in 
the  revised  form  of  the  word  ordained :  for  the  earlier  form, 
"  we  present  this  .  .  .  man  to  be  consecrated  bishop,"  we 
have  now,  *'we  present,"  etc.  .  .  .  **  to  be  ordained  and  con- 
secrated," etc. 

It  is  here  not  unworthy  of  remark  that  in  the  petition,  in 
the  Litany,  for  the  candidates  to  be  admitted  to  the  diaconate 
or  the  priesthood,  the  expression  is  "  the  order  of  deacons  or 
priests ;  "  but  in  that  prescribed  to  be  offered  for  the  bishop 
elect,  the  term  order  is  omitted ;  the  words  being  simply : 
"  That  it  may  please  thee  to  bless  this  our  brother  elected^'  etc. 
.  .  .  "that  he  may  duly  execute  the  office  whereunto  he  is 
called,"  etc.  This  would  seem  to  have  haply  escaped  the  at- 
tention of  the  revisers  of  1661. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

Stilltngfleet's  Irenicum  —  Object  of  the  Work  —  The  Main  Question 
Discussed  —  Divine  Right  —  Four  Pleas  —  Sermon  on  Mischief  of  Sep- 
aration —  Replies  of  Owen  and  Baxter  —  Review  by  John  Howe  —  "  Un- 
reasonableness oV  SePARyVTION." 


T 


HE  close  of  the  Cromwellian  period  is   marked  in  this 

history  by  the  appearance  of  Stillingfleet's  Irenicum, 

[No.  288,]  a  work  the  main   object  of  which,  as 

the  author  assures  us,  is  "  to  show  that  there   can 

be  no  argument  drawn  from  any  pretence  of  divine  right,  that 

may  hinder  men  from  consenting  and  yielding  to  such  a  form 

of  government  in  the  Church  as  may  bear  the 

Irenicum.  ,...„,, 

greatest  correspondence  to  the  primitive  Church, 
and  be  most  advantageously  conducible  to  the  peace,  unity, 
and  settlement  of  our  divided  Church."  It  is  an  able  present- 
ation of  the  argument  for  episcopacy  drawn  from  considera- 
tions of  expediency ;  and  a  plea  for  conformity  to  the  order 
of  the  Church  of  England,  on  the  ground  that  no  form  of 
Church  polity  is  expressly  laid  down  in  Scripture.  "  With 
the  view  of  facilitating  the  admission  of  non-conformists  into 
the  Church  of  England,  the  author  aims  to  break  down  the 
claims  of  any  and  all  religious  communities  to  an  imprescripti- 
ble right,  derived  from  divine  authority,  and  to  prove  that  no 
other  conditions  of  communion  should  be  imposed  than  such 
as  Scripture  expressly  requires." 

To  the  work  as  reprinted  in  1662,  the  author,  with  a  view  to 
conciliate  those  who  had  taken  offence  at  some  passages  in  the 
Irenicum,  added  an  appendix  in  the  form  of  a  "Discourse 
concerning  the  Power  of  Excommunication  in  a  Christian 
Church."  Its  object  is  to  prove  that  the  Church  is  a  distinct 
society  from  the  State,  possessed  of  rights  and  immunities  of 

308 


DIVINE    RIGHT.  3O9 

its  own,  particularly  the  right  of  censuring  offenders,  resulting 
from  its  constitution  as  a  Christian  society ;  and  that  these 
rights  of  the  Church  cannot  be  alienated  to  the  State,  after 
the  union  of  Church  and  State  in  a  Christian  country.  Accord- 
ing to  Bishop  Burnet,  the  argument  of  Stillingfleet  is  con- 
ducted with  such  learning  and  skill,  that  none  of  cither  side 
ever  undertook  to  answer  it.  He  moreover  informs  us  that, 
notwithstanding,  the  author  "  not  only  retracted  the  book, 
but  went  into  the  humors  of  that  high  sort  of  people,"  as 
he  expresses  it,  **  beyond  what  became  him,  perhaps  beyond 
his  own  sense  of  things."  The  ground  of  this  imputation  we 
shall  examine  a  little  farther  on. 

The  main  question  discussed  in  the  Ircniann^  as  stated  by 
the  author,  is  ''  tlic  divine  right  of  particular  forms  of  Cluircli 
government :  whether  the  particular  form  whereby  the  Church 
must  be  governed,  be  determined  by  any  positive  law  of  God, 
which  unalterably  binds  all  Christians  to  see  the 
observation  of  it.  .  .  .  The  forms  of  jjovernment  in 

°  question. 

controversy    are    only   these    two,    the    particular 
officers  of  several   churches,  acting  in  an  equality  of  power, 
which  are  commonly  called  a  college  of  presbyters  ;  or  a  supe- 
rior order  above  the  standing  ministry,  having  the  power  of 
jurisdiction    and    ordination   belonging  to  it  by  virtue  of  a 
divine  institution  —  called  episcopacy.     The  question  now,  is 
not,  which  of  these  two  doth  come  the  nearest  to  apostolical 
practice,  and  the  first  institution,  which  hath  hitherto  been  the 
controversy  so  hotly  debated  among  us  ;  but  whether  either 
of  these  two  forms  be  so  settled  by  a  jns  divimim,         .  . 
that  is,  be  so  determined  by  a  positive  law  of  God,        j.j  ^^ 
that  all  the  Churches  of  Christ  are  bound  to  ob- 
serve that  one  form  so  determined  without  variation  from  it ; 
or  whether  Christ  hath  not  in  settling  of  his  Church  (provided 
there  be  some  form  of  government,  and  a  settled  ministry  for 
the  exercise  of  it,)  left  it  to  the  prudence  of  every  particular 
church,  consisting  of  many  congregations,  to  agree  upon  its 
own  form  which  it  judgeth  most  conducing  to  the  end  of  gov- 
ernment  in   that   particular    church.  .  .  .  The    most   probable 


310         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

way  to  come  to  an  issue  in  this  question,  is,  to  go  through  all 
the  ways  whereon  men  do  fix  an  unalterable  divine  right,  and 
to  see  whether  any  of  these  do  evince  a  divine  right,  settled 
upon  a  positive  law  or  not,  for  one  of  these  forms.  The  pleas 
then  for  such  a  divine  right  are  these :  either 
oui  p  eas.  ^^^  some  formal  law  standing  in  force  under  the 
gospel,  or  {/?)  some  plain  institution  of  a  new  law  by  Christ  in- 
forming his  Church,  or  (r)  the  obHgatory  nature  of  apostol- 
ical practice,  or  (d)  the  general  sense  of  the  primitive  Church, 
to  which  we  shall  add,  by  way  of  appendix,  the  judgment  of 
the  chief  divines  and  churches  since  the  Reformation." 

On  the  Jirst  point  the  author's  conclusion  is,  "  that  the  Jew- 
ish pattern  is  no  standing  law  for  Church  govern- 
First  plea.  ^  ,       ,  1  . 
ment  now, .  . .  but  because  there  was  some  superi- 
ority of  order  then,  and  subordination  of  some  persons  to  others 
under  that  government,  such  a  superiority  and  subordination 
is  no  ways  unlawful  under  the  gospel ;  for  that  would  destroy 
the  equity  of  the  law."     On  the  second,  the  con- 
.  econ   p  ea.  ^j^g-^^^  jg^  a  ^.j^^^.  ^^j.  gaviour  hath  determined  no 

more  of  church  government  than  what  is  applicable  to  a  di- 
versity of  particular  forms,  and  so  hath  not  by  any  law  or 
practice  of  his  own  determined  the  necessity  of  any  one  form." 
Special  attention  is  due  to  the  discussion  of  the 
P  ea.  ^^^^y^  pi^g^  ^^  ^  divine  right.  On  the  question  of 
chief  interest,  Who  have  authority  to  ordain,  according  to  apos- 
tolic precedent?  the  leading  points  of  the  argument  are  the 
following :  "  In  reference  to  the  fixed  officers  of  the  Church, 
in  their  first  state  and  period,  as  Hierom  tells  us,  '  the  churches 
were  ruled  by  the  common  council  of  the  presbyters ; '  before 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  presbyters  was  restrained  by  mutual 
consent,  in  this  instance  doubtless,  the  presbyters  enjoyed  the 
same  liberty  that  the  presbyters  among  the  Jews  did,  of  or- 
daining other  presbyters  by  the  power  with  which  they  were 
invested  at  their  own  ordination. 

"  In  the  first  primitive  Church,  the  presbyters  all  acted  in 
common  for  the  welfare  of  the  Church,  and  either  did  or 
might  ordain,  others  to  the  same  authority  with  themselves; 


THIRD     PLEA     FOR     DIVINE    RIGHT.  3II 

because  the  intrinsical  power  of  order  is  equally  in  them  and 
in  those  who  were  after  appointed  governors  over  presbyteries. 
And  the  collation  of  orders  doth  come  from  the  power  of 
order,  and  not  merely  from  the  power  of  jurisdiction.  It  being 
likewise  fully  acknowledged  by  the  schoolmen,  that  bishops 
are  not  superior  above  presbyters,  as  to  the  power  of  order." 

**  In  the  second  period  of  the  Church,  the  former  liberty  was 
restrained,  by  some  act  of  the  Church  itself,  for  preventing  the 
inconveniences  which  might  follow  the  too  common  use  of 
the  former  liberty  of  ordinations  ;  "  and  "  the  main  controversy 
is,  when  this  restraint  began,  and  by  whose  act;  whether  by 
any  of  the  apostles,  or  only  by  the  prudence  of  the  Church 
itself,  as  it  was  with  the  sanhedrim.  But  in  order  to  our  peace, 
I  see  no  such  necessity  of  deciding  it,  both  parties  granting 
that  in  the  Church  such  a  restraint  was  laid  on  the  liberty  of 
ordaining  presbyters ;  and  the  exercise  of  that  power  may  be 
restrained  still,  granting  it  to  be  radically  and  intrinsically  in 
them.  So  that  this  controversy  is  not  such  as  should  divide 
the  Church.  For  those  that  are  for  ordinations  only  by  a 
superior  order  in  the  Church,  acknowledging  a  radical  power 
for  ordination  in  presbyters,  which  may  be  exercised  in  the 
case  of  necessity,  do  thereby  make  it  evident  that  none  who 
grant  that  do  think  that  any  positive  law  of  God  hath  for- 
bidden presbyters  the  full  power  of  ordination;  for  then  it 
must  be  wholly  unlawful,  and  so  in  case  of  necessity  it  cannot  be 
valid.  Which  doctrine  I  dare  with  some  confidence  assert  to 
be  a  stranger  to  our  Church  of  England.  .  .  .  On  the  other 
side,  those  who  hold  ordinations  by  presbyters  lawful,  do  not 
therefore  hold  them  necessary,  but  it  being  a  matter  of  liberty 
and  not  of  necessity,  .  .  .  this  power  then  may  be  restrained 
by  those  who  have  the  care  of  the  Church's  peace." 

The  conclusion  under  this  head  is  summed  up  "  in  these 
three  propositions,  viz. :  First,  that  we  cannot  arrive  to  such 
an  absolute  certainty  of  apostolical  practice,  or  what  course 
the  apostles  took  in  governing  churches,  as  to  infer  from 
thence  the  only  divine  right  of  that  one  form  which  the  several 
parties  imagine  comes  the  nearest  to  it;   nor,  secondly,  is  it 


312         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

probable  that  the  apostles  did  tie  themselves  up  to  any  one 
fixed  course  in  modelling  churches ;  nor,  thirdly,  if  they  did, 
doth  it  necessarily  follow  that  we  must  observe  the  same :  a 
mere  apostolical  practice  being  supposed,  is  not  stifficient  of  itself 
for  the  founding  an  ti7ialterable  and  perpetual  right,  for  tliat  form 
of  government  iit  the  Church,  which  is  supposed  to  be  foimded  on 
that  practice.  Before  an  acknowledged  apostolical  practice  be 
looked  on  as  obligatory,  it  must  be  made  to  appear  that  what 
the  apostles  did,  they  did  from  some  unalterable  law  of  Christ, 
or  from  such  indispensable  reasons  as  will  equally  hold  in  all 
times,  places,  and  persons." 

On  the  fourth  point,  "  Whether  the  primitive  Church  did 
conceive  itself  obliged  to  observe  unalterably  one  individual 
form  of  government,  as  delivered  down  to  them  either  by  a 
law  of  Christ,  or  an  universal  constitution  of  the  apostles  ?  " 
the  conclusion  of  our  author's  argument  is,  that  the  primitive 
Church  "  did  only  settle  and  order  things  for  Church  govern- 
ment, according  as  it  judged  them  tend  most  to  the  peace  and 
settlement  of  the  Church,  without  any  antecedent  obligation, 
as  necessarily  binding  to  observe  only  one  course."  In  other 
words,  "  the  only  rule  and  law  which  the  primitive  Church  ob- 
served, as  to  Church  government,  was  the  tendency  of  its  con- 
stitutions to  the  peace  and  unity  of  the  Church ;  and  not  any 
binding  law  or  practice  of  Christ  or  his  apostles."  The  points 
of  proof  are,  [a)  the  enlargement  of  Church  power  in  corre- 
spondence with  that  of  churches  :  these,  at  first,  composed  of 
all  the  Christians  in  cities  ;  then,  of  those  in  neighboring  ter- 
ritory ;  then  dioceses,  provinces ;  (li)  no  certain  form  used  in 
all  churches,  some  being  without  bishops,  some  with  but  one 
in  a  whole  country,  etc. ;  {c)  Church  government  conformed 
to  the  civil  in  the  extent  of  dioceses ;  [d)  validity  of  ordina- 
tion by  presbyters  acknowledged  in  places  where  bishops 
were  settled. 

Under  the  last  head,  the  judgment  of  Reformed  divines,  the 

,    ,       author's   statement,   "  that   the   most  eminent   di- 
rouitn  plea,       .  .  ,T-»r  --i  uri- 

vmes  smce  the  Reformation  have  been  all  of  this 
mind,  that  no  one  form  is  determined  as   necessary  for  the 


MISCHIEF    OF    SEPARATION.  313 

Church  of  God  in  all  ages,"  is  supported  by  an  array  of  authori- 
ties quite  overwhelming'. 

Twenty  years  later,  Stillingfleet,  now  dean  of  St.  Paul's, 
again  came  forth  in  this  debate,  professedly  as  the  advocate 
of  peace  and  union,  by  the  publication  of  a  Sermon  on  the  Mis- 
cJiicf  of  Separation  ;  an  earnest  appeal  to  the  Non- 

-,  ,  111         ri  Mischief  of 

conformists  to  strengthen  the  hands  ot  the  esta-    Separation, 
blished    Church    against    the    common     enemy, 
Popery,  "  by  manfully  laying  aside  trivial  differ- 
ences, and  rejoining  her  communion." 

Of  the  circumstances  leading  to  the  delivery  of  this  sermon 
we  have  an  account  from  the  author  himself,  to  this  effect : 
While  the  nation  was  in  a  ferment  about  the  Popish  plot,  and 
the  apprehended  ascendency  of  Romanism,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  the  court,  and  the  growing  divisions  among  Protestants, 
a  book  came  out  under  the  name  of  a  Plea  for  Peace ^  (from  the 
pen  of  Baxter,)  which  better  deserved  the  title  of  a  Plea  for 
Disorder  and  Separation,  containing,  as  it  did,  numerous  keen 
and  bitter  reflections  on  the  constitution  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, and  **  no  fewer  than  thirty  tremendous  aggravations  of 
the  sin  of  conformity."  And,  as  if  this  were  not  enough,  not 
long  after,  from  the  same  pen,  appeared  another  book,  con- 
ceived in  the  same  spirit,  entitled  TJie  True  and  Only  Way  of 
Concord  of  all  the  Christian  Churches-;  a  volume  fraught  with 
such  impracticable  notions  and  dividing  principles,  that  its 
whole  design  would  seem  to  be  to  prove  that  there  is  ?io  true 
way  of  concord  among  Christians. 

That  a  person  of  Baxter's  reputation  for  piety,  of  his  age 
and  experience,  and  such  a  lover  of  peace,  withal,  as  he  had 
always  professed  himself,  should  think  of  leaving  two  such 
firebrands  behind  him,  followed,  as  they  have  since  been,  by 
four  or  five  more,  to  the  same  purpose,  thus  seeming  resolved 
to  leave  his  life  and  sting  together  in  the  wounds  of  this 
Church,  was  matter  of  infinite  surprise  and  concern.  That 
even  those  who  pretend  to  plead  for  peace,  and  to  labor  for 
the  restoration  of  concord  in  the  Church,  should  but  fan  the 
flame  of  contention  —  this,  says  Stillingfleet,  "gave  the   first 


314         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

occasion  to  those  thoughts  which  I  afterwards  delivered  in  my 
sermon.  And  it  falling  to  my  lot  to  preach  in  the  most  public 
auditory  of  the  city,  at  a  more  than  usual  appearance,  being 
the  first  Sunday  of  the  term,  I  thought  fit  to  take  opportunity 
to  lay  open  the  due  sense  I  had  of  the  unreasonableness 
and  mischief  of  the  present  separation.  Though  I  knew  this 
to  be  so  sore  a  place,  that  the  parties  most  concerned  could 
hardly  endure  to  have  it  touched,  even  with  a  soft  and  gentle 
hand,  yet  I  considered  the  duty  which  I  owe  to  God  and  this 
Church  above  the  esteem  of  good  words  of  peevish  and  par- 
tial men;  as  I  had  before  done  in  my  dealing  with  the  Papists; 
and  I  resolved  to  give  them  no  just  provocation  by  reproach- 
ful language  or  personal  reflections ;  but  if  truth  and  reason 
would  anger  them,  I  did  not  hold  myself  obliged  to  study  to 
please  them." 

But,  however  kindly  meant,  the  sermon  had  the  very  con- 
trary effect  to  that  intended  and  looked  for  by  its  author.  Dr. 
John  Owen,  the  great  Puritan  leader,  in  reply  to  the  sermon, 
put  forth  a  Brief  Vindication  of  the  No7i-canformists 
from  the  Charge  of  Schism,  written,  as  Stillingfleet 
acknowledges,  in  a  tone  of  civility,  if  with  little  force  of  argu- 
ment. Stillingfleet  had  charged  upon  dissent,  or  separation 
from  the  established  Church,  the  guilt  of  schism  ;  an  unlooked- 
for  attack  from  such  a  quarter,  which  roused  to  the  highest 
pitch  the  resentment  of  the  dissenting  leaders,  and  soon  called 
forth  a  number  of  indignant  replies.  Owen's,  as  written  in  a 
spirit  of  moderation,  is  deserving  of  special  remark.  It  would 
appear  that  complaint  had  been  made  of  the  unseasonableness 
of  Stillingfleet's  exposure  of  the  mischief  of  dissent,  in  view 
of  the  imminent  danger  to  the  Protestant  interest  then  appre- 
hended from  popery.  Owen  expresses  a  different  opinion  : 
"  For  it  is  meet  that  honest  men  should  understand  the  state 
of  those  things  in  which  they  are  deeply  concerned.  Non- 
conformists might  possibly  suppose  that  the  common  danger 
of  all  Protestants  had  reconciled  the  minds  of  the  conforming 
ministers  to  them,  and  I  was  really  of  the  same  judgment  my- 
self.    If  it  be  not  so,  it  is  well  they  are  fairly  warned  what 


UNREASONABLENESS  OF  SEPARATION.       315 

they  have  to  expect,  that  they  may  prepare  themselves  to 
undergoit  with  patience."  He  proceeds  to  point  out  the  un- 
fairness of  charging  the  Non-conformists  with  the  sin  of  schism, 
and  their  ministers  with  insincerity,  urging  that  the  tendency 
of  such  an  assault  was  to  stir  up  persecution  against  a  body 
of  religionists  who  had  already  suffered  for  their  honest  con- 
victions more  than  enough. 

Owen  was  quickly  followed  by  Baxter,  in  a  number  of  publi- 
cations [333-335]  —  all  betraying  too  much  of  the  petulance 
of  the  polemic.     His  part  in  this  controversy  is 
not  unjustly   characterized    by   his   distinguished 
adversary,  as  marked  by  unbecoming  passion. 

No  such  censure  attaches  to  the  review  of  the  sermon  put 

forth  by  John  Howe:  A  Letter  zvritten  out  of  the  Country  to  a 

Person  of  Quality  in  the  City,  zvho  took  offence  at  the  late  Sermon 

of  Dr.  Stillinsr fleet,  etc.    In  this  temperately  written 

o^         '  X  ^^  Howe. 

critique,  which  presents  the  Non-conformist's  plea 
in  its  most  convincing  form,  special  exception  is  taken  to 
Stillingfleet's  conduct  of  the  argument  on  two  grounds,  viz., 
the  writer's  too  great  acrimony,  and  his  too  little  seriousness. 
Other  lesser  opponents  appeared  in  Alsop,  Mischief  of  Im- 
position, a  book  which  the  dean  compares  to  the  bird  of 
Athens,  as  seeming  to  be  made  up  o{  face  and  feathers ;  and 
Barrett,  The  Rector  of  Sutton  —  Stillingfleet's  parish  when  he 
published  the  Irenicum  —  committed  zuith  the  Dean  of  St.  Paul's  ; 
or  a  Defence  of  Dr.  S.'s  Irenicum  against  the  late  ser- 
mon ;  a  production  which  seems  to  have  caused  the  dean  no 
little  uneasiness. 

In  reply  to  his   numerous  assailants,  great  and  small,  the 
author  of  the  Irenicum  gave  to  the  world,  as  the  mature  fruit 
of  his  studies  in  this  department,  a  volume  entitled  The  Un- 
reasonableness of  Separation,  [No.  340;]  or  an  im- 
partial account  of  the  history,  nature,  and  pleas  of         ^     '* 
the  present  separation  from  the  communion  of  the  ^'"leasonable- 

^  ^  ness  of  Separa- 

Church  of  England ;    a  work  displaying  a  minute         tj^n. 
acquaintance  with  the  writings  of  the  early  Puri- 
tans, and  with  the  different  views  of  the  several  parties  among 


3l6         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

the  Presbyterians.  It  brings  out  the  fact  that  the  Puritans, 
many  of  them,  employed  the  same  arguments  against  the 
Brownists  which  Churchmen  now  urged  against  themselves. 
"  It  cannot  be  denied,"  says  the  Puritan  advocate  Orme,  "  that 
on  the  principles  of  many  of  his  adversaries,  the  dean  had 
the  better  of  the  argument.  The  discussion  turned  chiefly  on 
this  point  —  Are  the  parochial  churches  true  churches  ?  If 
they  be,  why  desert  them  ?  If  you  deny  that  they  are,  you 
are  guilty  of  the  uncharitableness  which  your  forefathers 
charged  on  the  separatists.  If  you  hold  occasional  com- 
munion with  them,  which  many  of  you  do,  and  for  the  law- 
fulness of  which  most  of  you  contend,  why  separate  from 
them  at  all  ?  Such  were  the  dilemmas  on  the  horns  of  which 
the  reverend  dean  endeavored  .to  toss  his  opponents."  {Life 
of  Owen.) 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Rights  of  Convolation  —  Revision  of  the  Liturgy  —  Alterations  Pro- 
posed—  Opposed  BY  Sherlock  —  Advocated  by  Tenison  —  Anti-Revi- 
sionist Triumph  —  Synodal  Condemnation  of  Burnet's  Exposition  — 
Dispute  between  the  Upper  and  the  Lower  House  —  Declaration  of 
the  Latter  —  Address  and  Counter-Address — The  Bishops' Reply  — 
High  Church  and  Low  Church. 

SHORTLY  after  the  Revolution  of  1688,  the  rights  of  Con- 
vocation began  to  be  strenuously  advocated.  It  was 
justly  urged  that  the  Church,  considered  only  as  an  integral 
member  of  the  commonwealth,  and  the  greatest  corporation 
within  it,  might  fairly  claim  the  right  of  managing  its  own 
affairs,  a  right  confessedly  inherent  in  every  other  association  ; 
thatthe  judo^ment  of  the  Convocation  —  the  Church 

.  11.,  1  -1  Rights  of 

representative  —  ought  to  have  independent  weight  Convocation 
in   the    determination    of  all    ecclesiastical    ques- 
tions ;    its   province  being  the    care    of  the    interests    of  the 
Church,  even  as  that  of  the  Parliament  was  the  care  of  the 
interests  of  the  State ;  that  the  argument  from  abuse,  which 
had    been    much    employed   by   the    Church's    enemies,  was 
wholly  futile,  as  telling  equally  against  all  representative  gov- 
ernment, and  against  civil  liberty  itself;  that  without  the  in- 
tervention of  such  a  synodical  body,  as  experience  had  abun- 
dantly shown,  no  amendment  was   to  be  looked  for  in  the 
affairs   of  the   Church,  the  legislature  being  lamentably  in- 
different, and  the  clergy,  for  the  most  part,  justly  jealous  of 
its  interference. 

These  cogent  arguments  were  met  by  a  number  of  allega- 
tions, more  remarkable  for  ingenuity  than  weight,  viz.,  that 
ecclesiastical  assemblies,  when  powerful,  as  Convocation,  com- 
posed of  a  wealthy  and  numerous  clergy,  must  always  be, 
have  in  all  ages  and  countries  been  mischievous ;  that  the 


3l8         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

caustic  remark  of  Clarendon,  that  of  all  mankind  none  form 
so  wretched  an  estimate  of  human  affairs  as  churchmen,  is 
abundantly  confirmed  by  experience ;  that  the  representation 
of  the  Church  in  the  House  of  Lords  is  sufficient  for  the  pro- 
tection of  its  interests  ;  that  the  clergy  have  an  influence  which 
no  other  corporation  enjoys  over  the  bulk  of  the  nation,  and 
are  apt  to  abuse  it  for  the  purposes  of  undue  ascendency,  un- 
just restraint,  or  factious  ambition  ;  that  the  hope  of  any  real 
good  in  reformation  of  the  Church  by  its  own  assemblies,  to 
whatever  sort  of  reform  we  may  look,  is  utterly  chimerical  ; 
finally,  that  as  the  laws  now  stand,  which  few  would  incline 
to  alter,  the  ratification  of  Parliament  must  be  indispensable 
for  any  material  change.* 

While  this  debate  was  keenly  pursued  on  either  side,  the 
question  of  the  revision  of  the  Liturgy  excited  a  no  less  lively 
interest,  and  called  forth  much  earnest  discussion.  Early  in 
1689,  an  act  for  exempting  dissenters  from  the  penalties  of  cer- 
tain laws,  called  the  Act  of  Toleration,  received  the 
the  Liturey.  ^^Y"^  assent.  A  large  number  of  dissenters,  how- 
ever, were  desirous  to  bring  about  a  scheme  of 
comprehension  with  the  established  Church ;  and  a  bill  on  the 
subject  had  passed  the  House  of  Lords.  But  as  the  Commons 
considered  the  question  as  more  suitable  for  Convocation,  the 
Lords  concurred  in  an  address  to  the  throne  praying  that, 
according  to  the  ancient  usage  in  time  of  Parliament,  his 
majesty  would  be  pleased  to  issue  writs  for  calling  a  Convoca- 
tion of  the  clergy  to  be  advised  with  in  ecclesiastical  matters. 
Before  the  synod  was  convened,  to  prepare  the  way,  a  royal 
commission  was  issued,  authorizing  twenty  persons  named  as 
commissioners,  to  meet  and  propose  alterations  in  the  Liturgy 
and  Canons,  and  to  consider  other  matters  connected  with  the 
Church. 

The  commissioners,  among  whom  were   Burnet,   Stilling- 
fleet,  Patrick,  Tillotson,  Tenison,  and   Beveridge, 

era  ions    pj-oceeded    earnestly   in    the    work,   the    majoritv 
proposed.      ^  -'  ■'         •' 

doubtless  in  the  hope  of  accomplishing  some  plan 

*  liallam.  Const.  Hist.  xvi. 


OPPOSED    BY    SHERLOCK.  3I9 

of  comprehension.  As  the  result  of  their  deliberations  they 
proposed,  among  a  number  of  alterations  of  minor  importance, 
the  following : 

A  rubric  on  the  usefulness  of  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism. 
The  use  of  it  to  be  omitted  altogether  when  desired. 

The  sacramental  elements  to  be  administered  in  pews  to 
those  who  might  object  to  kneeling. 

The  absolution  to  be  read  by  deacons;  the  word  minister 
being  substituted  iox priest ;  and  the  words  "  remission  of  sins" 
omitted. 

Sponsors  to  be  disused  ;  and  children  to  be  presented  in  the 
name  of  their  parents,  if  desired. 

A  rubric  to  declare  that  the  curses  in  the  Athanasian  Creed 
are  confined  to  those  who  deny  the  substance  of  the  Christian 
religion. 

It  soon  became  evident  that  the  changes  proposed  by  the 
commission  were  altogether  unacceptable  to  the  majority  of 
the  clergy ;  and  that  an  attempt  to  introduce  them  would  be 
met  with  the  most  determined  opposition.  The  character  of 
that  opposition  is  fairly  illustrated  in  the  follow- 
ing passage  from  a  publication  of  the  period,  ^'^^  /^ 
ascribed  to  Dr.  Sherlock,  the  champion  of  the 
anti-revision  party  :  "  Whether  there  be  any  necessity  of  such 
alterations  in  the  Liturgy ;  if  there  be  any,  for  the  satisfaction 
of  the  members  of  our  Church,  who  generally  believe  there  is 
none,  why  is  not  this  necessity  made  appear?  If  there  be 
none,  whether  it  be  for  the  reputation  of  the  Church  to  be  so 
frequently  meditating  unnecessary  alterations  ?  If  not  neces- 
sary, whether  they  are  intended  for  the  sake  of  the  Church, 
or  for  the  satisfaction  of  dissenters  ?  If  for  the  sake  of  the 
Church,  should  it  not  first  be  inquired  whether  the  Church 
desires  it;  and  what  alterations  she  requires?  Should  not  the 
Convocation,  then,  have  first  met  and  considered,  before  the 
commissioners  had  troubled  themselves  to  make  such  altera- 
tions ?  If  for  the  sake  of  the  Church,  why  should  any  thing  be 
altered  which  hath  the  general  approbation  of  the  true  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  ?  If  for  the  satisfaction  of  dissenters,  do 
they  know  what  will  satisfy  dissenters  ?     Can  any  alterations 


320         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

in  the  prayers  satisfy  them  who  declare  against  all  forms  ? 
Whether  they  ought  not  to  have  as  tender  a  regard  to  the 
members  of  our  own  Church  as  to  dissenters  ?  If  such  altera- 
tions should  make  a  schism,  would  it  not  prove  of  more  con- 
sequence than  this  present  schism  ?  " 

The  cause  of  revision  was  espoused,  in  reply  to  Sherlock, 

by  Tenison,  in  a  publication  without  his  name,  entitled  "  A 

Discourse  on  the  Ecclesiastical  Commission,  proving  it  to  be 

agreeable  to  the  Law,  etc.,  useful  to  the  Convoca- 

,    rp    .         tion,  tending"  to  the  well-being^  of  the  Church,  and 

by  Tenison.  '  ^  °  ' 

seasonable  at  this  juncture,"  Tenison  agrees  with 
Sherlock  in  avowing  the  conviction  "that  the  prayers  cannot 
be  altered  for  the  better;"  not  meaning  this  commendation, 
however,  to  apply  to  every  collect. 

When  the  Convocation  assembled,  the  struggle  between  the 
friends  and  the  opponents  of  revision  at  once  began  in  the 

election    of  a   prolocutor.      The    anti-revisionists 

Anti-revisionist  .,.,1  ••.  r  .  .  i_i.ur 

triumph       carried  it  by  a  majority  of  two  to  one;  but  before 
it  could  enter  upon  the  consideration  of  the  ques- 
tion of  revision,  the  Convocation  was  dissolved. 

Ten  years  elapsed  without  any  synodical  action  beyond  that 
of  meeting  and  adjourning;  and  in  the  year  1700  the  Convo- 
cation was  at  length  permitted  to  meet  for  business.     It  soon 
became  apparent  that  the  attitude  of  the  two  parties  had  in 
the  mean  time  continued  unchanged.     Among  its  earliest  acts, 
the  lower  house,  under  the  leadership  of  Atter- 
Burnet's      bury,  proceeded  to  pronounce  condemnation  upon 
condemned.   Bishop   Burnet's   Exposition   of  the  Articles   of 
Religion.     The  aitwius  of  this  proceeding,  which 
was  regarded  as  the  crowning  act  of  a  factious  opposition  to 
the  upper  house,  may  appear  from  the  general  character  of  the 
charges  alleged:  "  i.  That  the  book  tends  to  introduce  such  a 
latitude  and  diversity  of  opinions  as  the  Articles  were  framed 
to  avoid.     2.  That  there  are  many  passages  in  the  Exposition 
of  several  articles,  which  appear  to  us  to  be  contrary  to  the 
true  meaning  of  them,  and  to  other  received  doctrines  of  our 
Church.     3.  That  there  are   some  things   in  the   said  book 
which   seem  to  us  to   be  of  dangerous   consequence    to  the 


DECLARATION    OF     LOWER     HOUSE.  321 

Church  of  England  as  by  law  established,  and  to  derogate 
from  the  honor  of  its  reformation."  It  is  well  understood  that 
Burnet's  liberal,  or,  as  they  were  stigmatized,  latitudinarian 
views  on  questions  of  Church  order,  as  developed  in  his  ex- 
position of  the  twenty-third  article,  were  the  real  object  of 
attack  in  the  Representation  of  the  lower  house.  In  reply,  the 
bishops  pronounce  the  action  of  the  lower  house  of  Convoca- 
tion, in  "  censuring  the  book  ot  the  Bishop  of  Sarum  in 
general  terms,  without  mentioning  the  particular  passages  on 
which  the  censure  is  grounded,  defamatory  and  scandalous." 

In  the  disputes  now  so  unhappily  carried  on  between  the 
two  houses  of  Convocation,  the  course  of  the  bishops,  it  is 
universally  conceded,  is  marked  by  singular  moderation  and 
forbearance ;  in  striking  contrast  with  that  of  the 
majority  of  the  lower  house.     The  leading   sub-       Houses 
ject  of  contention  was  the  claim  of  the  latter  to       dispute, 
sustain  the  same  relation  to  the  upper  house  that 
the  Commons  in  Parliament  bore  to  the  House  of  Lords ;  that 
they  should  adjourn  by  their  own  authority,  apart  from  the 
upper  house,  where,  and  to  such  time,  as  they  should  see  fit. 
This  the  bishops  in  a  body  resisted,  very  properly,  as  it  would 
seem,  insisting  upon  conformity  to  the  ancient  usage,  which 
had  never  yet  been  departed  from,  that  the  president  adjourn 
the  two  houses  together,  and  to  the  same  time. 

While  these  discussions  were  in  progress,  the  lower  house, 
taking   advantage    of  a    report   now   industriously   circulated 
against  them,  that  they  were   favorable  to  presbytery,  their 
opposition  to  the  bishops  being  artfully  construed  into  hostility 
to  episcopacy,  put  forth  ?i  Declaration  to  the  follow- 
ing effect:  That  "whereas  they  had  been  scandal-      of  Lower 
ously  and  maliciously  represented  as  favorers  of        House, 
presbytery,  in  opposition  to  episcopacy,  they  now 
declare  that  they  acknowledge  the  order  of  bishops  as  supe- 
rior to  presbyters,  to  be  of  divine  apostolical  institution,  and 
that  they  claim  no  rights  but  what  they  conceive  necessary  to 
the  very  being  of  the  lower  house  of  Convocation." 

In  another  address,  on  the  same  day,  they  pray  the  bishops 


322  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

to  concur  with  them  in  settling  the  doctrine  of  episcopacy, 

that  it  might  be  the  standing  rule  of  the  Church.     It  is  plain 

that  in  preferring  this  request,  the  lower  house 

Address.  .,  _  ,.  ,.     ,  i 

were  guilty  oi  a  discreditable  attempt  to  entrap 
the  bishops  into  a  decision  of  a  question  which  it  was  not  com- 
petent for  them  to  decide.  They  further  hoped,  it  would 
appear,  to  involve  the  bishops  in  this  dilemma :  if  their  pro- 
posal should  meet  with  the  bishops'  concurrence,  they  would 
gain  their  point ;  if  not,  the  bishops  themselves  might  appear 
to  be  covert  favorers  of  presbytery. 

A  counter  address  was  presented  by  the  minority  of  the 
lower  house,  disclaiming  the  Declaration,  on  the  ground  that 
such  a  proceeding  was  of  dangerous  precedent,  though  they 

fully  concurred  in  the  doctrine  which  it  asserted. 

Counter  i      i      •        i       ,  i       i 

Address.      They   moreover   expressed  their   doubt   whether, 
as  the  Church  had  not  declared  that  bishops  are 
superior  to  presbyters  by  divine  institution,  they  could  legally 
assert  the  doctrine  in  Convocation  without  the  royal  license. 

In  reply  to  the  declaration  and  address   of  the  lower  house, 
the  bishops,  through  their  president,  put  forth   a  statement  to 
the  effect  that  the  preface  to  the  ordinal  contains  a  declara- 
tion of  three  orders  in  the  ministry ;  but  that  it 
Bishops'  .  ,  .        ,     .  .  ^ 

Reply  "^^^^  "^^  Within  their  province  to  enact  any  canon 
or  rule  respecting  doctrine  or  discipline  without  the 
royal  license.  Commending  the  zeal  of  the  lower  house  for 
episcopacy,  they  express  a  hope  that  that  body  would  continue 
to  act  accordingly  in  the  future.  The  wisdom  and  modera- 
tion of  this  reply  did  not,  however,  avail  to  prevent  an  expres- 
sion of  surprise  on  the  part  of  the  clergy,  that  the  bishops 
should  decline  to  avow  their  position  on  the  point  in  ques- 
tion ;  to  say  plainly  whether  they  did  or  did  not  concur  in  the 
Declaration. 

It  was  during  the  progress  of  these  disputes  in  Convocation 

that  the  since  hackneyed  appellations  High  Cluirch 

High  Church  ^^^  ^^^^  Church  first  came  into  use ;  and  it  is  a 

Low  Church   ^loteworthy  fact  that,  at  the  time  when  these  party 

designations  were  first  applied,  the  bishops,  as  a 

body,  were  ranked  among  the  Low  Churchmen. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

Lord  King's  Inquiry — Its  High  Profession  of  Candor  —  Not  Fully 
Borne  Out — Supports  Independency — Answered  by  Sclater  —  Ori- 
ginal Draught  —  King's  Conversion  —  Probability  of  the  Tradition 
—  Character  of  Sclater's  Argument. 

A  WORK  too  important  in  its  influence  on  the  develop- 
ment of  opinion  in  the  succeeding  age,  to  be  overlooked 
in  this  record,  is  Lord  King's  htqidry  into  the  Con- 
stitution, Discipline,  Unity,  and  Worship  of  the  Primi-      inquiry?  ^ 
tive  CJiinrh,  [No.   383,]  a   treatise   marked  by  a 
singular  show  of  candor,  by  no  means  realized  in 
the  writer's  conduct  of  his  argument. 

The  author's  definition  of  a  church  is  that  of  the  Inde- 
pendents :  "  a  society  of  Christians,  meeting  together  in  one 
place  under  their  proper  pastors,  for  the  performance  of  re- 
ligious worship,  and  the  exercising  of  Christian 
discipline."  **  The  constituent  parts  of  a  particular  i)eTnWon" 
church  are  the  clergy  and  laity,  an  early  distinc- 
tion, mentioned  by  Clemens  Romanus."  Of  the  clergy,  the 
particular  orders  and  degrees  "we  may  say  to  be  three,  viz., 
bishops,  priests,  and  deacons.  In  the  apostolic  and  primitive 
days,  there  was  but  one  supreme  bishop  in  the  place,  that  was 
6  STTifrxoffog,  the  bishop  by  way  of  eminency ;  the  proper  pastor 
and  minister  of  his  parish,  to  whose  care  and  trust  the  souls 
of  that  church,  or  parish,  over  which  he  presided,  were  prin- 
cipally and  more  immediately  committed.  This  is  he  which 
in  the  Revelation  is  called  'the  angel'  of  the  Church."  As 
"'there  was  but  one  bishop  to  a  church,"  so  "there  was  but 
one  church  to  a  bishop.  The  bishop's  diocese  exceeded  not 
the  bounds  of  a  modern  parish,  and  was  the  same,  as  in  name, 
so  also  in  thing.     All  the  people  of  a  diocese  did  every  Sunday 

323 


324         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

meet  all  together  in  one  place  to  celebrate  divine  service.  The 
bishop  had  but  one  altar  or  communion-table  in  his  whole 
diocese,  at  which  his  whole  flock  received  the  sacrament  from 
him.  The  greatest  bishoprics  in  the  world,  even  in  the  third 
century,  were  no  more  than  single  congregations." 

The  functions  of  the  bishop's  office  were  preaching  the 
word,  praying  with  his  people,  administering  the  two  sacra- 
ments, taking  care  of  the  poor,  ordaining  of  ministers,  govern- 
ing his  flock,  excommunicating  of  offenders,  absolving  of 
penitents.  The  primitive  apostolic  bishop  was  elected  by  all 
the  members  of  a  parish,  both  clergy  and  laity.  When  ap- 
proved by  the  neighboring  bishops  whose  approbation  and 
consent  were  necessary  to  his  legal  constitution,  he  was 
ordained  **  in  his  own  church  by  the  neighboring  bishops." 

"  The  ancients  generally  mention  presbyters  distinct  from 
bishops.  .  .  .  The  great  question  which  hath  most  deplorably 
sharpened  and  soured  the  minds  of  too  many,  is  what  the 
office  and  order  of  a  presbyter  was :  about  this  the  world  hath 
been,  and  still  is,  most  uncharitably  divided.  Some  equalize 
a  presbyter  in  every  thing  with  a  bishop ;  others  as  much  de- 
base him,  each  according  to  their  (his)  particular  opinions, 
either  advance  or  degrade  him.  In  many  controversies  a 
middle  way  hath  been  the  safest ;  perhaps  in  this,  the  medium 
between  the  two  extremes  may  be  the  truest. 

"  Now  the  definition  of  a  presbyter,  may  be  this  :  a  person 
in  holy  orders,  having  thereby  an  inherent  right  to  perform 
the  whole  office  of  a  bishop ;  but  being  possessed  of  no  place 
or  parish,  not  actually  discharging  it,  without  the  permission 
and  consent  of  the  bishop  of  a  place  or  parish.  As  a  curate 
hath  the  same  mission  and  power  with  a  minister,  whose  place 
he  supplies ;  yet  not  being  the  minister  of  that  place,  he 
cannot  perform  there  any  acts  of  his  ministerial  function,  with- 
out leave  from  the  minister  thereof;  so  a  presbyter  had  the 
same  order  and  pozver  with  a  bishop,  whom  he  assisted  in  his 
cure,  yet  being  not  the  bishop  or  minister  of  that  cure,  he 
could  not  there  perform  any  parts  of  his  pastoral  office  with- 
out the  permission  of  the  bishop  thereof:  so  that  what  we 


LORD    KINGS    INQUIRY.  325 

generally  render  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons,  would  be  more 
intelligible  in  our  tongue,  if  we  did  express  it  by  rectors, 
vicars,  and  deacons ;  .  .  .  different  in  degree,  but  yet  equal  in 
order. 

"  With  the  bishop's  permission,  the  presbyter  preached  and 
administered  the  sacraments  ;  he  ruled  in  the  church  to  which 
he  belonged ;  together  with  the  bishop  he  presided  in  church 
consistories;  he  had  the  power  of  absolution,  and  of  excom- 
munication, and  also  of  confirmation. 

"As  for  ordination,  I  find  but  little  said  of  this  in  antiquity; 
yet  as  little  as  there  is,  there  are  clearer  proofs  of  the  presby- 
ters' ordaining,  than  there  are  of  their  administering  the  Lord's 
Supper.  .  .  .  Whatever  a  bishop  did,  the  same  did  a  presbyter; 
the  particular  acts  of  their  office  were  the  same;  the  only  dif- 
ference that  was  between  them  was  in  degree. 

"  The  imity  of  the  Church  Universal  consisted,  not  in  an  uni- 
formity of  rites  and  customs,  nor  in  an  unanimity  of  consent 
to  the  non-essential  points  of  Christianity,  but  in  an  harmoni- 
ous assent  to  the  essential  articles  of  religion,  or  in  an  unani- 
mous agreement  in  the  fundamentals  of  faith  and  doctrine. 

"The  unity  of  a  particidar  cliurcli  consisted  in  the  members' 
love  and  amity  toward  each  other,  and  in  their  due  subjection 
to  their  pastor  or  bishop :  accordingly  the  breach  of  that 
unity  consisted  either  ^zri-/,  in  hatred  and  malice  of  each  other, 
or,  second,  in  a  rebellion  against  their  lawful  pastor,  or,  which 
is  all  one,  in  a  causeless  separation  from  their  bishop  and 
those  that  adhered  to  him.  The  first  (without  a  formal  sepa- 
ration) was  called  schism,  as  in  i  Cor.  xi.  i8;  the  second  \v^?> 
what  the  ancients  commonly  termed  schism.  The  causes 
justifying  separation  from  the  bishop  were  three:  (<?)  apos- 
tasy from  the  faith,  or,  when  a  bishop  renounced  the  faith  ; 
(U)  heresy ;  (<r)  a  scandalous  and  wicked  life." 

In  the  controversies  that  have  arisen  in  our  own  country  on 
the   constitution   and   ministry   of  the   Church,    Lord   King's 
Inquiry  has  not  unfrequently  been  quoted  and  re- 
ferred to  by  writers  against  episcopacy,  in  .such  a 
way  as  to  imply  that  it  had  never  received  an  answer;  that, 


326         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

indeed,  it  is  unanswerable.     A  full  quarter  of  a  century  was 

allowed  to  elapse  before  an  answer  appeared,  yet  when  at 

length  the  answer  came  forth,  under  the  title  of  An  Original 

Draught  of  the  Primitive  CJmrcJi,  [No.  461,]  it  was 

Draught  hailed,  by  general  acknowledgment,  as  a  conclu- 
sive refutation  of  Lord  King's  book.  The  tradi- 
tion is  that  the  author  of  the  Inquiry  was  himself  convinced 
by  it.  The  first  record  of  this  tradition  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Works  of  the  Learned,  for  January,  1739,  only  six  years  after  Lord 
King's  death.  It  is  to  this  effect:  *'An  answer  was  made  by  a 
very  learned  and  judicious  divine  to  this  book,  (the  Inquiry^  in 
1 7 17,  which  Sir  Peter  King  saw,  and  read  in  manuscript  before 
it  was  printed ;  and  he  had  it  in  his  power  to  prevent  the  printing 
of  it  effectually,  if  he  pleased.  But  so  far  was  he  from  that,  that 
he  gave  up  his  own  book,  (which  had  just  then  received  a 
second  edition,)  and  he  returned  the  manuscript  with  thanks, 
and  desired  it  might  be  printed,  for  it  had  convinced  him  of 
his  mistakes." 

The  truth  of  this  report,  which  has  been  contemptuously 
questioned,  is  rendered  fairly,  if  not  highly  probable  by  the 
considerations  following:  The  Liq  uiry  \wdiS  a  youthful  perform- 
ance ;  as  such,  it  is  repeatedly  referred  to  by  the  author  him- 
self, who  manifests  throughout  the  volume  a  becomingly  mod- 
est appreciation  of  his  work,  not  hesitating  to  declare,  as  he 
does  in  the  preface,  "unfeignedly  and  sincerely  to  prevent  mis- 
takes in  my  younger  years,  I  humbly  desire,  (if  the  request  be 
not  too  bold,)  and  shall  heartily  thank  any  learned  person, 
that  will  be  so  kind  as  to  inform  me,  if  he  knows  me  to  have 
erred  in  any  one  or  more  particulars ;  .  .  .  and  I  promise,  if 
my  mistakes  are  fairly  shown,  I  will  not  pertinaciously  and 
obstinately  defend,  but  most  willingly  and  thankfully  renounce 
them,  since  my  design  is  not  to  defend  a  party,  but  to  search 
out  the  truth." 

There  seems  little  reason  to  question  the  sincerity  of  the 
youthful  writer's  profession  of  unreserved  openness  to  convic- 
tion;  and  when,  in  his  mature  age,  the  exposure  of  his  errors 
and  mistakes  was  brought  before  him  in  such  a  convincing 


.       AN    ORIGINAL     DRAUGHT.  32/ 

form  as  we  sec  it  to  be  in  the  Original  Draught,  it  is  altogether 
reasonable,  as  it  is  but  due  to  the  author  of  the  Inquiry,  to  believe 
that  he  actually  made  the  acknowledgment  ascribed  to  him. 
This  presumption  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  he  attempted 
no  reply  to  his  reviewer ;  and  by  the  further  fact,  that,  not 
long  after  the  appearance  of  the  Original  Draught,  he  made  its 
author  an  offer  of  a  living  in  the  Church  of  England  —  an 
offer  which  Sclater  as  a  non-juror  could  not  accept. 

As  a  sample  of  the  trenchant  yet  temperate  style  of  our 
author's  critique,  take  the  following  from  the  opening  of  the 
fourth  chapter :  **  To  heal  divisions  in  a  church,  and  displease 
none  that  make  them,  are  two  such  works  of  charity  as  can 
scarce  consist  together.  Yet,  to  carry  this  as  far  as  it  would 
go,  the  good  Inquirer  seems  to  aim  at  both ;  the  former  he 
solemnly  professes  in  his  preface,  the  latter  as  visibly  appears 
in  the  performance  itself.  But  with  what  success,  and  by 
what  means  he  has  done  it,  in  a  great  measure  appears  by 
what  has  gone  before,  and  in  this  fourth  chapter  will  be  much 
clearer  still. 

"There  are  three  or  four  parties,  as  he  tells  us  himself,  which 
he  aimed  to  reconcile :  He  began  with  the  Independents'  cause, 
and  in  order  to  make  them  and  the  rest  agree,  he  has  strained 
antiquity,  you  see,  to  make  it  speak  their  sense,  in  the  points 
of  congregational  dioceses,  and  the  popular  right  of  choosing 
their  own  bishops,  the  main  matters  they  contend  for,  which, 
no  doubt  of  it,  will  offend  none  of  them ;  but  as  to  clearing 
up  the  truth  in  their  case,  and  bringing  them  to  a  peaceful 
disposition  for  compromising  matters  with  such  as  differ  from 
them,  we  may  justly  fear,  by  the  palpable  writhings  for  their 
sake,  he  has  done  little  or  nothing  that  can  tend  to  that  happy 
end." 

The  charge  of  straining  aiitiquity  in  favor  of  Independency, 
thus  explicitly  alleged  against  the  Candid  Inqinrer,  is  sup- 
ported at  large  in  the  first  three  chapters.  A  single  instance  of 
misrepresentation,  out  of  the  large  number  adduced  by  our 
author,  may  be  taken  as  fairly  representing  the  whole  :  In  his 
exposition  of  passages  in  the  writings  of  the  fathers,  which 


328         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Lord  King  alleges  to  prove  that  in  the  largest  cities  there 
were  no  more  than  a  single  congregational  church  during  the 
first  three  hundred  years,  "  He  begins  with  Justin  Martyr, 
and  renders  a  passage  in  his  first  Apology,  thus  :  On  Sunday  all 
assemble  toge titer  in  one  place.  Now  Justin's  words  are  these  : 
On  Sunday  all  throughout  cities  or  countries  meet  together ;  and 
why  do  we  think  he  left  out  these  words,  tJiroughout  cities  or 
countries,  which  were  the  very  middle  of  the  sentence.  Why? 
because  those  words  of  the  holy  martyr  would  undeniably 
show  it  to  be  a  general  account  of  Christian  practice  in  all 
places  of  the  Christian  world  ;  whereas,  our  Inquirer  s  business 
ivas  to  make  it  a  particidar  instance  of  a  single  bishop's  diocese, 
and  that  all  the  members  of  it,  both  in  city  and  country,  met 
in  one  and  the  same  place  together  at  once ;  and  if  it  were  so, 
thus  cities  and  countries  in  the  plural  number  would  be  too 
much  for  him;  for  if  they  proved  any  thing  in  that  sense,  they 
would  prove  that  cities  and  countries,  indefinitely  taken,  where- 
ever  there  were  any  Christians  in  them,  met  all  together  every 
Sunday,  and  made  but  one  congregation;  and  therefore  the 
expression  assembling  together,  used  with  reference  to  a  com- 
plex body,  as  it  evidently  is  here,  severally  refers  to  each 
distinct  member  and  part  whereof  that  complex  body  con- 
sists, and  plainly  denotes  that  every  part  .  .  .  did  hold  an  as- 
sembly on  that  day.  {Chap,  ii.) 

'*  He  now  proceeds  to  bring  the  Presbyterian  party  to  a 
temper,  by  much  the  same  way;  that  is,  by  allowing  them 
fairly,  as  fast  as  he  can,  without  regard  to  such  as  differ  from 
them,  the  chief  and  fundamental  point  they  insist  upon,  tJie 
equality  of  order  in  the  bishops  and  the  presbyters  ;  and  to  clear 
his  way  for  that,  he  defines  his  presbyters  thus  :  A  person  in 
holy  orders,  having  tlicreby  an  inJicrent  right  to  perform  the  whole 
office  of  a  bishop,  etc. 

"  In  this  proposition  it  is  implied  that  in  the  judgment  of 
antiquity,  the  solemn  office  of  promoting  a  presbyter  to  the 
station  of  a  bishop  added  nothing  more  to  his  former  char- 
acter and  order  than  a  right  and  title  only  to  exercise  those 
powers,  to  the  full,  which  were  inherent  in  him  before." 


AN    ORIGINAL    DRAUGHT.  329 

Now  here  "  I  observe,  after  the  example  of  the  Inquirer 
himself:  ist.  That  the  same  word  which  all  antiquity  uses  for 
expressing  the  promotion  of  a  layman  to  a  deacon,  or  a  deacon 
to  a  presbyter,  they  used  also  for  the  promotion  of  presbyters 
into  the  station  of  a  bishop.  It  is  ordination  of  bishops  as 
well  as  of  priests  and  deacons  in  the  familiar  language  of  the 
fathers.  This  our  Inquirer  owns.  Hence  I  argue  in  his  own 
words,  *if  the  same  appellation  of  a  thing  be  a  good  proof  for 
the  identity  of  its  nature,'  then  the  rite  of  consecrating  a 
bishop  must  confer  a  new  order  upon  him. 

"2d.  A  single  bishop,  by  the  ancient  canons  of  the  Church, 
and  by  sufficient  evidence  besides,  might  ordain  a  presbyter  or 
deacon.  But  to  make  a  bishop,  a  whole  province  of  bishops 
did  most  commonly  assemble,  and  collate  that  power  and 
character  upon  him  which  ever  after,  and  never  before,  he  was 
invested  in." 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Warburton's  Theory  of  the  Relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State  — 
The  Alliance  —  Analysis  of  —  Coleridge's  Theory  Compared — Ar- 
nold's Theory  —  Gladstone's  —  Bunsen's  —  Prevailing  Views  of  Church 
Order  in  England  as  Represented  by  Leslie  and  Law  —  Emanuel  Swe- 
denborg  :  Church  of  the  New  Jerusalem. 

HOOKER'S  theory  of  the  relation  of  the  Church  to  the 
State  was  now  for  the  first  time  controverted  with  com- 
petent abihty  by  William  Warburton,  who  came  forth  in  ex- 
Warburton's  position  and  defence  of  a  system  which,  since  its 
theory.       promulgation,  has  divided,  with  those  of  Hooker 
'736.        and  the  Puritans,  the  suffrages  of  thinking  men. 
The  Puritans,  as  we  have  seen,  maintained  that  the  Church 
and  the  State  are  two  distinct  and  independent  societies;  and 
that  therefore  the  Church  is  in  no  way  subject  to  the  control 
of  the  magistrate.     In  opposing  these  views.  Hooker  asserted 
that  the  Church  and  the  State  were  but  portions  of  the  same 
society,   and  that  the   State   had  a  rightful  supremacy  over 
Alliance      ^^^  Church.     Warburton,  in  his  Alliance  bctiucen 
between      CJiurck  mid  State,  [No.  494,]  advocates  a  theory 
Church  and   opposed   alike   to   both ;    maintaining    that    the 
State.        Church    and    the    State,    though    originally    dis- 
tinct, had  voluntarily  formed   an  alliance,  on  just  and  rea- 
sonable  terms,  for  the   sake   of  mutual    advantage ;    an   hy- 
pothesis  supposed   to   have   been   suggested  by   the  French 
notion   of   a  social   contract  between    governors    and   those 
governed. 

The  leading  points  of  Warburton's  argument,  as  developed 
in  the  Alliance,  are  contained  in  the  following  brief  abstract : 
"  The  dependence  of  one  society  upon  another  must  arise 
either  from  the  law  of  nature  or  the  law  of  nations.     Depend- 

Z2i^ 


ALLIANCE    BETWEEN    CHURCH    AND    STATE.  33I 

ence  by  the  law  of  nature  is  from  essence,  or  generation ;  but 
the  Church  could  not  in  this  way  be  dependent  on  the  State ; 
for  the  Church  existed  before  the  State  had  a  being.  What- 
ever connection,  therefore,  exists  between  the  two,  must  exist 
under  the  law  of  nations,  or  by  civil  compact. 

"  But  as  man,  when  he  submitted  to  become  a  member  of 
civil  society,  necessarily  relinquished  some  of  his  individual 
rights,  so  the  Church,  when  she  entered  into  alliance  with  the 
State,  acted  in  a  similar  manner,  by  giving  up  her  right  of  in- 
dependence, which  she  transferred  to  the  civil  power.  But 
as  man  received  an  equivalent  for  the  natural  rights  which  he 
relinquished  in  entering  into  society,  so  should  the  Church 
receive  an  equivalent  for  that  which  she  relinquished  in  enter- 
ing into  alliance  with  the  State.  The  equivalent,  then,  which 
the  Church  received,  for  acknowledging  the  civil  power  to  be 
her  superior,  was,  protection  in  her  acts,  and  support  to  her 
authority. 

**  The  State,  at  the  same  time,  expected  assistance  and  sup- 
port from  the  Church,  in  the  exertion  of  her  influence  for  the 
promotion  of  virtue  and  good  order  in  the  community.  One 
of  the  modes  in  which  the  State,  as  the  protector  and  guardian 
of  the  Church,  would  enable  her  to  exercise  her  authority  in  its 
behalf,  would  be  by  conferring  on  her  a  portion  of  coercive 
power  to  enjoin  the  observation  of  such  duties  of  imperfect 
obligation  —  the  duties,  for  instance,  of  charity,  gratitude,  hos- 
pitality, and  others  of  similar  nature  —  as  laws  cannot  enforce; 
and  such  others,  also,  of  perfect  obligation,  as  are  violated 
by  the  intemperance  of  the  several  appetites.  Such  coercive 
power  the  Church  does  not  possess  of  herself,  for  though  she 
has  power  of  excommunication,  the  only  power  that  a 
religious  society,  considered  independently,  needs  —  yet  this 
power  is  not  of  general  influence  in  regard  to  the  community, 
but  of  efficiency  only  to  preserve  the  purity  of  her  own  par- 
ticular worship. 

"  A  great  means  of  bestowing  this  coercive  power  on  the 
Church  is  the  public  endowment  of  its  ministers,  assigning 
for  their  maintenance  a  fixed  share  of  the  national  property; 


332         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

thus  rendering  the  religious  society,  of  whose  aid  the  State 
has  so  much  need,  more  firm  and  stable,  and  destroying  that 
dependence  of  the  clergy  on  the  people  which  arises  from 
their  maintenance  by  voluntary  contribution.  Such  public 
maintenance  may  be  provided  by  means  of  tithes,  a  mode  of 
support  not,  indeed,  obligatory,  but  just  as  eligible  for  modern 
as  it  was  for  ancient  times. 

"The  dignity  of  the  clergy  and  the  interest  of  the  Church 
will  be  promoted  by  the  State's  conceding  to  the  superior 
members  of  the  Church  a  place  in  the  legislature,  such  as,  in 
England,  the  bishops'  seat  in  Parliament;  a  just  concession, 
inasmuch  as  the  Church,  having,  when  she  formed  an  alliance 
with  the  State,  relinquished  to  the  latter  her  independence, 
ought  to  have  a  voice  in  the  legislature  to  prevent  the  power, 
which  the  State  now  possesses  over  her,  from  being  perverted 
to  her  injury.  Had  she  no  such  voice,  her  position  would  be 
that,  not  of  a  subject,  but  of  a  slave,  to  the  State;  and  no  laws 
could  justly  be  made  in  the  legislature  concerning  her,  because 
no  free  man,  or  free  body  of  men,  can  be  bound  by  laws  to 
which  they  have  not  given  their  consent. 

"  If,  when  the  union  between  Church  and  State  in  any  coun- 
try is  formed,  there  should  be  more  churches  in  it  than  one, 
the  State  will  form  its  alliance  with  the  strongest,  or  most 
numerous,  acting  thus  from  motives  of  policy  ;  for  the  larger 
a  religious  society  is,  the  better  able  will  it  be,  as  having  the 
greater  number  under  its  influence,  to  render  service  to  the 
State.  To  other  less  powerful  religious  bodies  the  State  will 
grant  toleration,  or  the  free  enjoyment  of  their  opinions  and 
forms  of  worship,  yet  under  such  restrictions  as  will  keep 
them  from  injuring  the  religion  allied  with  the  State ;  for 
without  such  restrictions,  the  State  could  not  fully  discharge 
its  contract  with  the  Church  to  which  it  is  allied.  One  rea- 
sonable restriction  of  this  sort  is  that  by  which  the  dissenting 
bodies  are  excluded  from  those  offices  of  honor  and  power  in 
which  they  might  exert  influence  to  the  injury  of  the  allied 
Church.  Such  a  test-law  was  introduced  in  England  in  the 
reign  of  Charles  II.,  as  a  security  to  the  established  Church 


ALLIANCE    BETWEEN    CHURCH     AND    STATE.  333 

against  the  Puritans  ;  a  law  of  which  William  III.  acknowl- 
edged the  necessity. 

"The  exclusion  of  dissenters  from  places  of  honor  and 
profit,  for  matters  of  opinion,  is  no  violation  of  their  civil 
rights,  for  those  places  are  not  lodged  in  the  hands  of  the 
civil  power  as  a  trust,  which  may  be  claimed  by  all  subjects, 
and  equally  shared  among  them,  but  are  of  the  nature  of  pre- 
rogative, of  which  the  civil  power  may  dispose  at  pleasure, 
being  only  bound  to  see  that  the  offices  be  filled  by  persons 
duly  qualified;  and  among  due  qualifications  not  the  least  will 
be  a  favorable  disposition  to  the  established  religion.  When 
opinions  affect  the  peace  of  society,  they  come  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  civil  power,  and  the  peace  of  society  is 
directly  and  necessarily  affected  by  those  opinions  which  a 
test-law  makes  matter  of  disqualification. 

"The  alliance  between  Church  and  State  is  not  indissoluble. 
It  will  naturally  continue  only  so  long  as  the  Church  in  alli- 
ance with  the  State  maintains  its  superiority  in  numbers  over 
other  religious  societies.  When  this  superiority  is  lost,  the 
alliance  becomes  void ;  since  the  allied  Church  being  no 
longer  able  to  perform  its  part  in  the  compact,  by  influencing 
the  majority  of  the  nation  to  the  observance  of  morality  and 
good  order,  the  State  is  at  once  disengaged  from  the  alliance; 
and  a  new  alliance  may  be  formed  with  such  other  religious 
society  as  may  have  become  the  most  numerous,  Thus  the  alli- 
ance between  the  pagan  church  and  the  empire  of  Rome  was 
dissolved,  and  the  Christian  established  in  its  place ;  and  thus 
the  alliance  between  the  Romish  Church  and  the  kingdom  of 
England  was  broken,  and  another  made  with  the  Reformed  in 
its  stead." 

And  so,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Church  having  subordinated 
itself  to  the  State  upon  faith  of  certain  stipulations  for  support 
by.  the  latter,  if  the  State  violates,  or  withdraws  from  the  ful- 
filment of  those  stipulations,  the  Church  is  thereby  remitted 
to  her  original  independence. 

Such  is  the  theory  of  Warburton  as  developed  in  the  Alli- 
ance:  let  us  compare  with   it  that  of  Coleridge,  put  forth  a 


334         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

century  later,  in  his  work   On  the  Idea  of  Chtirch  and  State, 

^,    .,    ,     [No.  575,1  a  work  to  which  Maurice   ascribes  a 
Coleridge's     ^  V.-^  ,  ,        , 

theory        Superiority  over  almost   every  book  so  recently 

published,  as  having  "exercised  a  more  decided 

influence  over  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  men  who  ultimately 

rule  the  mass  of  their  countrymen." 

So  far  as  the  inter-dependency  of  the  Church  and  the  State 
is  in  question,  Coleridge  agrees  with  Warburton.  The  pe- 
culiarity of  his  system  is  grounded  on  a  distinction  taken 
between  the  visible  Church  of  Christ,  as  localized  in  any 
Christian  country,  and  the  national  or  established  Church  of 
that  country.  Distinction,  not  separation,  for  the  two  ideas, 
not  only  may  coexist  in  the  same  siippositiun,  but  may  require 
an  identity  of  subject  in  order  to  the  complete  development 
of  the  perfections  of  either.  The  Christian  Church,  according 
to  Coleridge,  is  not  a  kingdom  or  realm  of  this  world,  nor  a 
member  of  any  such  kingdom  ;  it  is  not  opposed  to  any  par- 
ticular State,  in  the  large  or  narrow  sense  of  the  word ;  it  is 
in  no  land  national,  and  the  national  Reserve  is  not  intrusted 
to  its  charge.  (The  primitive  races,  in  taking  possession  of 
a  new  country,  and  in  the  division  of  the  land  into  heritable 
estates  among  the  individual  warriors  or  heads  of  families, 
set  apart  a  Reserve  for  the  nation  itself.  The  sum  total  of 
these  heritable  portions  is  called  the  Propriety;  the  Resen^e 
is  named  the  Nationalty.  These  were  constituent  factors  of 
the  commonwealth  ;  the  exi.stence  of  the  one  being  the  con- 
dition of  the  rightfulness  of  the  other.) 

It  is,  on  the  contrary,  opposite  to  the  world  only ;  the 
counterforce  to  the  evils  and  defects  of  States,  as  such,  in  the 
abstract  —  asking  of  any  particular  State  neither  wages  nor 
dignities,  but  demanding  protection,  that  is,  to  be  let  alone. 
The  Christian  Church  is  a  public  and  visible  community,  hav- 
ing ministers  of  its  own,  whom  the  State  can  neither  consti- 
tute nor  degrade,  and  whose  maintenance  among  Christians 
is  as  secure  as  the  command  of  Christ  can  make  it.  (i  Cor. 
ix.  14.)  The  National  Church  is  a  public  and  visible  com- 
munity,   having    ministers    whom   the    nation,  through    the 


I 


COLERIDGE   S    THEORY.  335 

agency  of  a  constitution,  has  created  trustees  of  a  reserved 
national  fund,  upon  fixed  terms,  and  with  defined  duties,  and 
whom,  in  case  of  breach  of  those  terms,  or  dereliction  of  those 
duties,  the  nation,  through  the  same  agency,  may  discharge. 
"  If  the  former  be  Ecclesia,  the  communion  of  such  as  are 
called  out  of  the  world,  that  is,  in  reference  to  the  especial 
ends  and  purposes  of  that  communion;  the  latter  might  more 
expressively  have  been  called  Enclcsia,  or  an  order  of  men 
chosen  in  and  of  the  realm,  and  constituting  an  estate  of  the 
realm." 

It  is  thus  evident  that  Coleridge's  system  is  at  direct  vari- 
ance with  that  of  Warburton,  and  that  of  Hooker,  as  also 
with  the  theory  of  the  Presbyterian  Puritans,  in  so  far  as  they, 
one  and  all,  consider  any  branch  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  as 
such,  in  the  character  of  a  National  Establishment,  and  arrogate 
to  it,  as  such,  upon  any  ground,  worldly  riches,  rank,  or  power. 

"  It  is  not  denied  that  it  is  contrary  to  justice  to  compel 
those  who  dissent  from  a  religious  system,  to  contribute  to  the 
maintenance  of  its  ministers  ;  but  it  is  at  the  same  time  main- 
tained, that  a  national  dedication  of  funds  for  the  support  of 
a  determinate  class  of  men  charged  with  the  duty  of  national 
civilization,  can  no  more  be  vacated  by  reason  of  the  volun- 
tary secession  of  dissenters,  because  the  seceders  understand 
the  nature  of  that  duty  in  a  way  of  their  own,  than  the  right 
of  the  legislature  to  levy  taxes  for  the  protection  of  the  State 
from  foreign  aggression  can  be  affected  by  the  opinion  of  the 
Quakers,  that  war  is  unlawful. 

"  But  the  funds  set  apart  by  the  nation,  it  is  urged,  for  the 
support  of  the  National  Church,  are  now,  in  fact,  received  by 
the  ministers  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  England.  True, 
answers  Coleridge;  but,  according  to  the  idea,  it  is  not  because 
they  are  such  ministers  that  they  receive  those  funds,  but 
because,  being  now  the  only  representatives,  as  formerly  the 
principal  constituents,  of  the  National  Clerisy  or  Church,  they 
alone  have  a  commission  to  carry  on  the  work  of  national 
cultivation  on  national  grounds.  Such  a  Church  is  a  principal 
instrument  of  the  divine  providence  in  the  institution  and  gov- 


336  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

ernment  of  human  society.  But  it  is  not  that  Church  against 
which  we  know  that  hell  shall  not  prevail  Though  the 
Church  ^England  may  fall,  the  Church  of  Christ  in  England 
will  stand  erect ;  and  the  distinction  lost  now  in  a  common 
splendor,  will  then  be  better  seen  and  felt  by  that  world  to 
which  the  Christian  Church  must  become,  more  and  more,  a 
conspicuous  ©pposite." 

With  Coleridge's  theory  of  the  Church  we  may  compare 

that  of  Arnold,  (^Fragment  on  the   Chinrh)  [No. 

theory        686,]  that  of  GLADSTONE,  {The  State  in  its  Relations 

zuith  the  Church)  [No.  60 1,]  and  that  of  Bunsen, 

{The  Clmrch  of  the  Future)   [No.  734.] 

Arnold's  theory  may  be  summarily  expressed  in  the  phrase: 
the  Church  is  the  State ;  and,  as  given  in  outline  by  its  author, 
may  be  stated  thus :  i.  The  State  has  for  its  legitimate  object 
the  highest  happiness  of  its  people,  not  physical  well-being 
only,  but  also  intellectual  and  moral.  2.  Church  officers,  as 
sovereign  or  independent,  can  be  regarded  in  two  lights  only, 
that  of  priests  or  that  of  I'ulers.  Priests  are  independent,  as 
deriving  either  from  supposed  holiness  of  race  or  person,  or 
from  their  exclusive  knowledge  of  the  divine  will,  a  title  to 
execute  certain  functions,  which  none  but  themselves  can  per- 
form ;  and  therefore  these  functions  being  of  prime  necessity, 
enable  them  to  treat  with  the  State,  not  as  members  or  sub- 
jects of  it,  but  as  foreigners  conferring  on  it  a  benefit,  and 
selling  this  on  their  own  terms.  Rulers  of  course  are  inde- 
pendent and  sovereign,  ipsd  vi  termini.  3.  But  ecclesiastical 
officers  of  Christianity  are,  by  God's  appointment,  neither 
priests  nor  rulers.  Not  priests,  for  there  is  one  only  Priest, 
and  all  the  rest  are  brethren;  none  has  any  holiness  of  person 
or  race  more  than  another;  none  has  any  exclusive  posses- 
sion of  divine  knowledge.  Not  rulers,  for  Christianity  not 
being  a  dp-»j(rxgia,  or  ritual  service,  but  extending  to  every  part 
of  human  life,  the  rulers  of  Christians,  qua  Christians,  must 
rule  them  in  all  matters  of  principle  and  practice  ;  and  if  this 
power  be  given  to  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons,  by  divine 
appointment.  Innocent  III.   was    right,  and  every  Christian 


GLADSTONE   S    THEORY.  33/ 

country  should  be  like  Paraguay.  Hence  the  relation  of  the 
Church  to  the  State  is  not  that  of  an  alliance  or  union,  but  of 
absolute  identity.  In  other  words,  the  object  of  the  State  and 
that  of  the  Church  being  alike  the  highest  welfare  of  man,  and 
the  State  not  being  able  to  accomplish  this,  unless  acting  with 
the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  the  Church,  nor  the  Church, 
unless  invested  with  the  sovereign  power  of  the  State,  the 
State  and  the  Church  in  their  ideal  form  are  not  two  societies, 
but  one,  and  it  is  only  as  this  identity  is  realized  in  a  particular 
country,  that  man's  perfection  and  God's  glory  can  be  estab- 
lished on  earth. 

This  theory,  though  sanctioned,  as  Arnold's  biographer 
remarks,  by  Hooker,  by  Burke,  and,  in  part,  by  Coleridge, 
had  never  before  been  so  completely  the  expression  of  a  man's 
whole  mind,  or  the  basis  of  a  whole  system,  political  as  well 
as  religious,  positive  as  well  as  negative. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  theory  rests  on  the  fundamental  position, 
that  "  the  propagation  of  religious  truth  is  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal ends  of  government,  as  government;  that  whatever  be 
the  body  which,  in  any  community,  is  employed 
to  protect  the  persons  and  property  of  men,  that       theory 
body  ought  also,  in  its  corporate  capacity,  to  pro- 
fess a  religion,  to  employ  its  power  for  the  propagation  of 
that  religion,  and  to  require  conformity  to  that  religion  as  an 
indispensable  qualification  for  all  civil  office." 

Mr.  Gladstone's  argument  embodies,  in  substance,  the  fol- 
lowing propositions :  ''First,  Governors,  as  vidividiials,  lie 
under  an  *  obligation  to  profess  and  maintain  religion  in  their 
government,  as  in  other  parts  of  their  conduct.'  Second,  The 
State  itself,  taken  collectively,  has  a  personal  existence,  a  duty 
and  a  conscience,  and  is  therefore  bound,  collectively,  to  the 
same  profession  and  maintenance.  Third,  If  externally  able, 
and  internally  qualified,  and  if  the  same  thing  cannot  be  done 
so.  well  otherwise,  the  State  ought  to  extend  and  propagate 
the  same  religion  through  the  nation.  But  the  same  thing 
cannot  be  so  well  done  otherwise,  as  the  failure  of  the  volun- 
tary system,  left  alone,  proves ;  and  the  State  is  externally 


33S         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

competent,  both  as  having  the  means  of  endowment,  and  as 
coming  to  men's  minds  with  authority,  and  appeahng  both  to 
their  sympathies  and  interests.  And  lastly.  The  Government 
is  intrinsically  competent ;  i.  e.,  in  proportion  as  it  is  good 
government,  it  attracts  to  itself  those  among  the  people  who 
are  best  qualified  to  choose  in  matters  of  religion." 

The  fundamental  position  of  Bunsen's  theory  of  the  Church, 
[No.  734,]  as  that  of  Arnold's,  is  the  doctrine  of  the  universal 
priesthood  of  Christians  ;  that  there  is  and  can  be  no  priest- 
hood intermediate  between  the  expiatory  media- 

Bunsen's         .  _,        __       .  ,,        „,..,,. 

theory.  "^^'^^  ^^  the  Head,  and  the  Eucharistic  oblation 
of  the  whole  body  of  his  members  —  the  former 
necessarily  single  and  exclusive,  the  latter  common  and  uni- 
versal. "This  great  moral  idea,  though  requiring  for  its 
existence  in  the  germ  only  the  Christian /^'w/A',  demands  for 
its  full  development  a  Christian  nation,  and  a  Christian  State ; 
just  as  the  life  of  man  demands  for  its  full  development  to  be 
life  in  the  State."  There  is  here  no  organized  society,  or 
body  corporate  distinct  from  the  family,  the  nation,  the  State; 
no  new  social  relation  similar  to  these  introduced  into  the 
world  by  Christianity,  such  as  is  generally  understood  by  the 
term  Cliurch.  "  The  Church,"  in  Bunsen's  scientific  phrase- 
ology, "as  a  spiritual  personality,  is  the  human  race,  redeemed 
by  Christ :  as  an  institution,  she  is  the  divinely  appointed 
means  for  restoring  disunited  and  shattered  humanity  to 
peace  with  God  and  unity  with  itself"  By  "  becoming  a 
member  of  the  Church,  a  nation  becomes  a  portion  of  divinely 
liberated  humanity,  and  the  body  politic  becomes  actually  the 
highest  visible  manifestation  of  moral  life." 

"An  Evangelical  Church  polity  is,  accordingly,  nothing  but 
one  side  of  the  constitution  of  an  Ev-angelical  State."  Of  the 
two  ministries,  or  orders,  in  the  Church,  that  of  the  Word,  or 
preaching,  and  that  of  internal  government,  the  former,  as 
instituted  by  Christ  himself,  is  grounded  on  divine  right;  the 
latter  is  also  jwe  divino,  but  mediately,  through  the  divine 
right  which  is  inherent  in  human  society,  or  the  State.  "The 
supremacy  of  the  Church  is  vested  in  the  whole  congrega- 


CHARLES    LESLIE.  339 

tion."  Disclaiming  the  "  invisible  Church,"  and  denouncing 
what  he  calls  **  the  invisibility  of  the  visible  Church,"  as  **  an 
invention  of  the  theologians  —  an  opportune  invention  to 
help  the  canonists  out  of  their  difficulty  in  finding  the  sov- 
ereign person  of  the  Church  whom  they  had  lost  sight  of  on 
the  downfall  of  the  Church  of  the  clergy  " —  Bunsen  teaches 
that  "the  congregation  —  the  visible  community  or  Church 
of  the  Lord,  which  is  mankind  in  its  process  of  restoration, 
which  is  confessedly  incapable  of  being  represented  as  a 
whole  —  can  express  itself  only  through  Christian  literature 
and  public  opinion.  As  a  visible  universal  Church  would  pre- 
suppose a  universal  State,  particular  Christian  States  are  the 
highest  manifestations  of  that  universal  life  of  mankind  which 
cannot  be  represented  as  a  whole,  and  exhibit  the  nearest 
actual  approach  to  that  community  in  which  the  supreme 
earthly  authority  resides.  A  Christian  nation,  then,  so  far  as 
it  presents  itself  as  an  Evangelical  National  Church,  forms 
the  supreme  body.  Thus  Church  and  State,  or  nation,  are 
identical." 

The  views  of  Church  order  that  have  obtained  most  general 
acceptance  in  the  churches  of  the  Anglican  communion,  since 
the  reaction  of  1661-2,  even  down  to  our  own  day,  may  be 
fairly  represented  by  Charles  Leslie  and  William  Law,  both 
non-juring  divines.  If  not  the  ablest  theologians,  they  were 
yet  the  most  influential  theological  writers  of  their  day. 
Leslie,  eulogized  by  Dr.  Johnson  as  the  only  one  of  the  non- 
jurors who  could  reason,  and  he  "  a  reasoner  who  is  not  to 
be  reasoned  against "  —  defines  the  Church  as  "  not  only  a  sect, 
that  is,  a  company  of  people  believing  such  and  such  tenets, 
like  the  several  sects  of  the  heathen  philosophers ;  but  as  a 
society  under  government,  with  governors  appointed  by  Christ, 
invested  with  such  powers  and  authority,  to  admit  into  and 
exclude  out  of  the  society,  and  govern  the  affairs  of  the  body. 

'^This  power  was  delegated  by  Christ  to  His  apostles  and 
their  successors  to  the  end  of  the  world;  accordingly  the 
apostles  did  ordain  bishops  in  all  the  churches  which  they 
planted  throughout  the  whole  world,  as  the  supreme  governors 


340        THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

and  centre  of  unity,  each  in  his  own  church.  These  were 
obliged  to  keep  unity  and  communion  with  one  another, 
which  is  therefore  called  Catholic  communion ;  and  all  these 
churches  considered  together  is  the  Catholic  Church,  as  the 
several  nations  of  the  earth  are  called  the  world." 

Of  Episcopacy  Leslie  writes  in  this  decisive  strain  :  "  A  so- 
ciety cannot  be  without  a  government,  for  it  is  that  which 
makes  a  society ;  and  a  government  cannot  be  without  gov- 
ernors. The  apostles  were  instituted  by  Christ  the  first  gov- 
ernors of  His  Church ;  and  with  them  and  their  successors  He 
has  promised  to  be  to  the  end  of  the  world.  The  apostles  did 
ordain  bishops  as  governors  in  all  the  churches  which  they 
planted  throughout  the  whole  world ;  and  these  bishops  were 
esteemed  the  successors  of  the  apostles,  each  in  his  own 
church,  from  the  beginning  to  this  day.  .  .  .  Thus  it  continued 
from  the  days  of  the  apostles  to  those  of  John  Calvin  :  in  all 
which  time  there  was  not  any  one  church  in  the  whole  Chris- 
tian world  that  was  not  episcopal. 

"  So  evident  is  that  saying,  that  the  Church  is  the  pillar  and 
ground  of  the  truth,  that  we  can  hardly  find  any  error  which 
has  come  into  the  Church,  but  upon  an  infraction  made  upon 
the  episcopal  authority. 

"  For  which  this  is  to  be  said,  that  it  lias  all  the  four  marks 
before  mentioned,  to  ascertain  any  fact  in  the  concurrent  testi- 
mony of  all  churches,  at  all  times;  and  therefore  must  infalli- 
bly be  the  government  which  the  apostles  left  upon  the  earth. 
To  which  we  must  adhere  till  a  greater  authority  than  theirs 
shall  alter  it." 

The  "  four  marks  "  are  those  Leslie  lays  down  in  his  **  Short 
Method,"  the  concurrence  of  which  in  any  matter  of  fact 
demonstrates  its  reality.  "  i.  That  the  matter  of  fact  be  such 
as  that  men's  outward  senses  may  be  judges  of  it.  2.  That 
it  be  done  publicly  in  the  face  of  the  world.  3.  That  not  only 
public  monuments  be  kept  up  in  memory  of  it,  but  some  out- 
ward actions  be  performed.  4.  That  such  monuments,  and 
such  actions,  or  observances,  be  instituted,  and  do  commence 
from  the  time  that  the  matter  of  fact  was  done."     These  all 


WILLIAM     LAW.  34I 

meeting  in  the  matter  of  fact  of  episcopacy,  constitute,  Leslie 
contends,  "  an  infallible  dononstration "  of  it.  {Letter  to  a 
Friend,  and,  to  the  same  effect,  in  Discourse  on  the  Qualifications 
requisite  to  Administer  the  Sacraments)  [No.  474.] 

Law,  who  is  justly  characterized  as  "one  of  the  most  power- 
ful and  oriq;inal  of  Encflish  writers  in  the  interest 
of  religion,"  handles  the  subject  of  the  Church  and 
ministry,  with  characteristic  vigor,  in  his  Third  Letter  to  the 
Bishop  of  Bangor.  [No.  462.]  "There  is,  no  doubt  of  it,"  he  writes, 
"  an  invisible  Church,  i.  e.,  a  number  of  beings  that  are  in  cove- 
nant with  God,  who  are  not  to  be  seen  by  human  eyes ;  and 
we  may  be  said  to  be  members  of  this  invisible  Church,  as  we 
are  entitled  to  the  same  hopes  and  expectations.  But  to  call 
the  number  of  men  and  women  who  believe  in  Christ  and  ob- 
serve His  institutions,  whether  dispersed  or  united  in  this  visi- 
ble world,  to  call  these  the  invisible  Church,  is  as  false  and 
groundless  as  to  call  them  the  order  of  angels,  or  the  Church 
of  seraphims.  The  profession  of  Christians  is  as  visible  as  any 
other  profession,  and  as  much  declared  by  visible  external  acts. 
And  it  is  as  proper  to  call  a  number  of  men  practising  law  or 
physic,  an  invisible  society  of  lawyers  and  physicians,  as  to 
call  the  Church  on  earth  the  invisible  Church.  For  all  those 
acts  and  offices  which  prove  people  to  be  Christians,  or  the 
Church  of  Christ,  are  as  visible  and  notorious,  as  those  which 
prove  them  to  be  of  any  particular  secular  employment.  .  .  . 
The  holy  Catholic  Church,  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  differs 
from  worldly  societies  and  kingdoms,  but  not  in  point  of  visi- 
bility, but  in  regard  to  the  ends  and  purposes  for  which  it  is 
erected  ;  viz.,  the  eternal  salvation  of  mankind." 

**  The  doctrine  of  the  uninterrupted  succession  of  the  clergy  " 
is  thus  strenuously  asserted :  "  If  the  commission  to  exercise 
the  priestly  office  be  to  descend  through  ages,  and  distinguish 
the  clergy  from  the  laity ;  it  is  certain  that  the  persons,  who 
alone  can  give  this  commission,  must  descend  through  the 
same  ages,  and  consequently  an  uninterrupted  succession  is  as 
necessary  as  that  the  clergy  have  a  divine  commission.  Take 
away  this  succession,  and  the  clergy  may  as  well  be  ordained 


342         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

by  one  person  as  another ;  a  number  of  women  may  as  well 
give  them  a  divine  commission  as  a  congregation  of  any  men. 
They  may  indeed  appoint  persons  to  officiate  in  holy  orders^ 
for  the  sake  of  decency  and  order ;  but  then  there  is  no  more 
in  it  than  an  external  decency  and  order ;  they  are  no  more  the 
priests  of  God  than  those  that  pretended  to  make  them  so. 

*'  It  is  not  true  that  the  divine  unalterable  right  of  episcopacy 
is  founded  merely  upon  apostolical  practice. 

*'  We  do  not  say  that  episcopacy  cannot  be  changed  merely 
because  we  have  apostolical  practice  for  it,  but  because  such  is 
the  nature  of  the  Christian  priesthood  that  it  can  only  be  con- 
tinued in  that  method  which  God  has  appointed  for  its  con- 
tinuance. Thus  episcopacy  is  the  only  instituted  method  of 
continuing  the  priesthood ;  therefore  episcopacy  is  imchange- 
able,  not  because  it  is  an  apostolical  practice,  but  because  the 
nature  of  the  thing  requires  it :  a  positive  institution  being 
only  to  be  continued  in  that  method  which  God  has  appointed; 
so  that  it  is  the  nature  of  the  priesthood,  and  not  the  apos- 
tolical practice  alone,  that  makes  it  necessary  to  be  continued. 
.  .  .  The  argument  proceeds  thus :  The  Christian  priesthood 
is  a  divine  positive  institution,  which,  as  it  could  only  begin 
by  the  divine  appointment,  so  it  can  only  descend  to  after  ages 
in  such  a  method  as  God  has  been  pleased  to  appoint. 

"The  apostles  instituted  episcopacy  alone;  therefore  this 
method  of  episcopacy  is  unalterable,  not  because  an  apostolical 
practice  cannot  be  laid  aside,  but  because  the  priesthood  can 
only  descend  to  after  ages  in  such  a  method  as  is  of  divine 
appointment." 

The  objection  from  the  alleged  uncertainty  of  the  succession 
is  answered  thus  :  "  I  know  no  reason  why  it  is  so  uncer- 
tain, but  because  it  is  founded  upon  historical  evidence!'  But 
"  Christianity  itself  is  a  matter  of  fact  only  conveyed  to  us 
by  historical  evidence ;  the  canon  of  Scripture  is  only  made 
known  to  us  by  historical  evidence.  .  .  .  Cannot  historical  evi- 
dence satisfy  us  in  one  point  as  well  as  in  the  other?  Till  it 
is  shown  zuhen,  or  hozv,  or  zvliere,  this  succession  broke,  or 
seemed  to  break,  or  was  likely  to  break,  I  shall  content  myself 


EMANUEL    SWEDENBORG.  343 

with  ofTering  this  reason  why  it  is  morally  impossible  it  ever 
should  have  broken  in  all  the  term  of  years,  from  the  apostles 
to  the  present  times. 

*'  The  reason  is  this:  it  has  been  a  received  doctrine  in  every 
age  of  the  Church,  that  no  ordination  was  valid  but  that  of 
bishops.  This  doctrine  has  been  a  constant  guard  upon  the 
episcopal  succession:  for  seeing  it  was  universally  believed  that 
bishops  alone  could  ordain,  it  was  morally  impossible  that  any 
persons  could  be  received  as  bishops,  who  had  not  been  so 
ordained."  (II.  Letter,  P.  S) 

The  year  1757  is  the  date  fixed  by  Emanuel  Swedenborg 
as  that  of  the  foundation  of  the  Church  of  the  New  Jerusalem. 
In  his  treatise,  De  Nova  Hierosolyma,  published  in  1758,  [No. 
504,]  Swedenborg  gives  a  formal  exposition  of  his 
theory  of  the  New  Church:  "The  first  heaven," 
consisting  of  imaginary  heavens  in  the  world  of  spirits,  passed 
away  at  "  the  last  judgment ;  "  but  in  the  Apocalypse  we  read 
also  of  a  "  first  earth  ;  "  which  likewise  "  passed  away."  This 
earth,  says  Swedenborg,  signifies  the  Christian  Church  dead 
and  done  for.  Subsequent  to  the  passing  away  of  heaven  and 
earth  was  the  descent  of  the  Holy  City,  New  Jerusalem,  seen 
by  John,  from  God  out  of  heaven,  prepared  as  a  bride  adorned 
for  her  husband. 

The  New  Jerusalem,  then,  **  is  the  Church  with  respect  to 
doctrine."  The  Christian  Church  having  come  to  an  end,  a 
New  Church  is  established,  and  for  its  establishment  a  new 
code  of  doctrine  is  requisite.  This  code  Swedenborg  delivers. 
*'  It  is,"  he  writes,"  for  the  New  Church,  and  is  called  heavenly 
doctrine,  because  revealed  to  me  out  of  heaven.  When  I 
speak  of  the  churches  in  the  Christian  world,  I  mean  Pro- 
testant churches,  and  not  the  Popish  or  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  since  that  is  not  a  Christian  Church;  for,  wherever 
the  Christian  Church  exists,  the  Lord  is  worshipped,  and  the 
Word  is  read ;  whereas,  among  Roman  Catholics,  they  wor- 
ship themselves  instead  of  the  Lord,  forbid  the  Word  to  be 
read  by  the  people,  and  affirm  the  Pope's  decree  to  be  equal, 
yea,  even  superior  to  it. 


344         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

"  It  is  the  disappearance  of  Charity  that  has  caused  the  dis- 
solution of  the  Church  ;  for  where  there  is  no  Charity  there  can 
be  no  Faith  ;  notwithstanding  the  Protestant  churches  through- 
out Christendom  justify  their  divisions  on  the  score  of  Faith. 
But  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  goodness  alone  has  con- 
fidence and  manifestation  in  the  Truth,  and  that  therefore  none 
but  the  righteous  can  believe  in  the  Lord,  or  possess  real  Faith  ; 
and  their  Faith  is  simple  or  profound  in  the  strict  measure 
of  their  righteousness.  Hence  we  may  see  hov/  Faith  ceases 
when  Charity  ceases. 

"  Love  and  Faith,  in  other  words,  the  presence  of  the  Lord  in 
man,  constitute  the  Church.  In  whomsoever  the  Divine  life 
is  manifest,  that  is,  in  whomsoever  the  Lord's  will  is  done  — 
in  him  is  Heaven,  in  him  is  the  Church,  whatever  be  his  cir- 
cumstances, and  whatev^er  his  nominal  creed. 

*'  The  community  among  whom  the  Lord  is  acknowledged 
and  the  Word  exists,  is  called  the  Church.  .  .  .  Doctrine 
formed  from  the  Word  is  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  Church,  for  without  Doctrine  the  Word  cannot  be 
understood  :  but  Doctrine  alone  does  not  form  the  Church,  but 
Life  according  to  Doctrine."  (De  Nov.  Hicr.) 

Gentiles  who  acknowledge  God  and  live  in  obedience  to  the 
Truth  they  know  '*  are  in  communion  with  the  Church;  for  no 
one  who  believes  in  God  and  lives  well  is  damned.  Hence  it 
is  evident  that  the  Lord's  Church  exists  everywhere  on  earth, 
but  specifically  where  He  is  confessed  and  the  Word  is  read." 
[Ibid.  244). 

Swedenborg  prescribed  no  form  of  Church  government,  dis- 
cipline, or  ritual ;  not  designing,  it  would  appear,  that  any  body 
of  Christians  receiving  his  peculiar  views,  should  be  formed 
into  a  distinct  organization  or  separate  sect.  Having  himself 
lived  and  died  in  the  Lutheran  communion,  he  left  his  followers 
free  to  adhere  to  the  communion  of  the  churches  in  which  they 
were  severally  reared,  or  to  abandon  them  for  others,  as  they 
might  see  fit. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

The  American  EpiscorAXE  —  William  White — Scheme  for  the  Organiza- 
tion OF  the  American  Episcopal  Church  —  The  Divine  Right  of  Epis- 
copacy—  Moderate  Views  —  The  Question  of  Lay  Eldership  in  the 
American  Presbyterian  Church  —  Dr.  J.  P.  Wilson —  Dr.  Miller  —  Dr. 
Breckinridge  —  The  Question  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  —  Dr.  Colin 
Campbell  —  Lay  Eldership  Untenable  —  Dr.  Geo.  Campbell  of  Aber- 
deen— -Lectures  on  Ecclesiastical  History — Bishop  Skinner — De- 
fence OF  Episcopacy. 

IN  the  prolonged  dispute  on  the  question  of  an  American 
Episcopate,  as  agitated  in  the  Colonies,  before  the  separa- 
tion  from   the   mother   country,  "  There   were  two  periods," 
writes   Bishop  White,   **  especially  productive  of 
pamphlets  and  newspaper  essays.     The  first  was    ^  "^erican 

1  ,        .  .    ,  .    .,  ,  .    ,  Episcopate. 

about  the  time  of  the  civil  controversy  which  arose 

on  the  occasion  of  the  Stamp  Act."  Prominent  among  the 
names  of  those  engaged  in  this  dispute,  we  find  that  of  Dr. 
Mayhew,  of  Boston,  on  the  one  side,  and  that  of  Archbishop 
Secker,  on  the  other.  The  second  period  was  a  few  years 
before  the  Revolutionary  War,  when  the  Rev.  Dr.  Chandler, 
of  New  Jersey,  put  forth  an  appeal  to  the  public  in  favor  of  an 
American  Episcopate ;  a  publication  which  called  forth  nu- 
merous replies  and  defences.  So  strong,  however,  at  this  time, 
was  the  prevailing  feeling  against  the  measure,  that  but  few 
laymen  in  the  Episcopal  communion  could  be  found  to  favor 
it.  The  ground  of  this  opposition  seems  to  have  been  the  ap- 
prehension that  American  Episcopacy  would  have  been  made 
subservient  to  the  oppressive  rule  of  the  mother  country. 
And  while  **  in  the  Eastern  States  the  distinctive  features  of 
Church  discipline  and  order  were  passionately  valued ;  in  the 
South  the  great  majority  were  not  unwilling  to  give  them  up 
entirely.     Separation  between  the  two  '  sections '  seemed  in- 

345 


34^  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

evitable,  and  in  the  latter  the  very  existence  of  Episcopacy  was 
in  peril." 

At  this  perilous  juncture  a  man  appeared  who  was  remark- 
ably endowed  with  "those  gifts  of  judgment  and  temper  which 
were  needful  for  the  crisis ;  and  hence  the  name  of  William 
White  will  ever  be  recorded  by  the  P"rateful  re- 

^-!.  !^^      membrance  of  the  Western  Church.    Mild  in  man- 
White. 

ners,  meek  in  spirit,  and  large  in  toleration  of  the 
views  of  others,  he  was  yet  firm  and  decided  in  his  own." 
Having  espoused  from  conviction  the  cause  of  colonial  inde- 
pendence, he  was  in  a  position,  when  that  cause  triumphed,  to 
abate  the  jealousy  with  which  the  communion  to  which  he 
belonged  was  popularly  regarded.  "  Men  would  hear  from 
him  what  they  would  not  from  another ;  and  this  advantage 
he  was  not  slow  to  employ  for  the  general  good.     His  views 

were  early  turned  to  c^atherincr  the  various  flocks 
Scheme  of         ,  .    ,  ^  ,    ^  1,0 

orjranization  ^^^C"  were  Scattered  through  the  btates,  mto  one 
visible  communion.  Early  in  August,  1782,  de- 
spairing of  the  speedy  recognition  of  American  independence, 
and  '  perceiving  our  ministry  gradually  approaching  to  anni- 
hilation,' while  England  was  as  unwilling  to  give  as  America 
to  receive  the  episcopate  from  her,  he  proposed  a  scheme  for 
uniting  the  different  parishes  in  convention,  and  on  behalf  of 
their  whole  body,  committing  to  its  president  and  others  the 
powers  of  ordination  and  discipline."  * 

This  scheme  is  fully  developed  in  a  publication  entitled, 
"  The  Case  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  Considered,"  [No.  517,] 
and  contains  the  following  provisions :  **  That  individual 
churches  should  be  associated  in  small  districts, 
in  each  of  which  there  should  be  a  convention 
composed  of  representatives  elected  from  the  vestry  or  con- 
gregation of  the  several  churches  within  it,  the  minister  being 
one ;  that  they  should  choose  a  permanent  president,  who, 
with  other  clergymen,  appointed  by  the  body,  might  exercise 
powers  purely  spiritual;  in  particular,  those  of  ordination  and 
discipline,  over  the  clergy,  according  to  reasonable  laws ;  that 

■*^  Wilberforce,  Hist.  American  Church,  c.  vi. 


782. 


BISHOP    WHITE   S    SCHEME    OF    ORGANIZATION.     2,47 

the  United  States  should  be  divided  into  three  larger  districts, 
in  each  of  which  there  should  be  an  annual  assembly,  con- 
sisting of  members  sent  from  the  smaller  districts  within  it, 
equally  composed  of  clergy  and  laity,  and  voted  for  by  those 
orders  promiscuously,  the  presiding  clergyman  being  always 
one ;  and  that  there  should  be  a  body  representing  the  whole 
Church,  consisting  of  members  from  each  of  the  larger  dis- 
tricts, of  clergy  and  laity  equally,  and  among  the  clergy  equal- 
ly of  presiding  ministers  and  others,  to  meet  statedly  once  in 
three  years ;  these  representative  bodies  making  such  regula- 
tions, and  receiving  appeals  in  such  matters  only  as  should 
be  judged  necessary  for  their  continuing  one  communion. 

'*  The  churches  were  to  retain  the  episcopate ;  but  as  the 
succession  could  not  at  present  be  obtained,  there  was  to  '  be 
included  in  the  proposed  frame  of  government  a  general 
approbation  of  Episcopacy,  and  a  declaration  of  an  intention 
to  procure  the  succession  as  soon  as  conveniently  may  be ; 
but  in  the  mean  time,  to  carry  the  plan  into  effect  without 
waiting  for  the  succession;'  and  when  'the  episcopal  succes- 
sion should  be  afterwards  obtained,  any  supposed  imperfec- 
tions of  the  intermediate  ordinations  might,  if  it  were  judged 
proper,  be  supplied,  without  acknowledging  their  nullity,  by  a 
conditional  form  of  ordination,  resembling  that  of  conditional 
baptism  in  the  Liturgy ;  an  expedient  proposed  by  Arch- 
bishop Tillotson,  Bishops  Patrick,  Stillingfleet,  and  others, 
at  the  Revolution,  and  actually  practised  in  Ireland  by  Arch- 
bishop Bramhall.'  " 

The  views  of  Dr.  White,*  as  expressed  in  this  pamphlet  — 
views  to  which  he  consistently  adhered  to  the  last,  in  opposi- 
tion to  some  of  his  most  respected  brethren  in  the  episcopate, 
particularly  Bishop  Hobart  —  have  not  unfrequently  been 
misunderstood  and  misrepresented,  as  if  the  author  had  sur- 
rendered the  claim  of  Episcopacy  to  apostolical  institution, 
and  the  general  obligation  of  retaining  it.  A  temporary 
departure    from    the   primitive   usage,  on   the   ground   of  an 

*  Wilson's  Life  of  Bishop  White. 


348  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

evident   necessity,  was  the   extent   of  the   relaxation   recom- 
mended in  this  publication. 

In  a  volume  of  Lectures,  [No.  549,]  published  in  181 3,  the 

matured  opinions  of  Bishop  White,  on  questions  of  Church 

order,  are  expressed  at  large,  and  with  no  deviation  from  his 

earlier  statements.    Thus,  in  Lecture  VII.  —  Of  the  Ministry  — 

after  expressing  his  full  conviction  of  the  apostolic 

On  the  divine     ...  _„,  r     .     .^        ^      , 

rieht  mstitution  of  Episcopacy,  as  a  fact,  the  lecturer 

proceeds  to  answer  the  question,  whether  the  fact 
of  apostolic  institution  involves  the  principle  of  "  divine  insti- 
tution," meaning,  by  that  expression,  as  he  himself  explains, 
such  a  divine  appointment  as  renders  an  observance  "  obli- 
gatory, like  the  sacraments,  at  all  times,  and  under  all  circum- 
stances of  the  Church." 

The  answer  is  noteworthy,  alike  in  view  of  its  subject- 
matter,  and  of  the  characteristic  manner  in  which  it  is  ex- 
pressed :  "  If  the  moving  of  this  question  had  originated  in 
the  mere  rage  for  innovation,  it  would  be  hardly  worth  the 
resolving,  at  the  expense  of  the  danger  of  disparaging  an 
institution  made  venerable  by  apostolic  origin,  and  by  the 
uninterrupted  usage  of  fifteen  centuries.  But  it  happened  at 
the  Reformation,  that  in  some  countries.  Christians  were  so 
circumstanced,  as  that  they  had  no  alternative  between  dis- 
pensing with  this  particular  regimen  and  the  continuing  in  the 
bosom  of  a  Church  extremely  corrupt  in  doctrine ;  and  under 
this  embarrassment  many  ecclesiastical  systems  of  discipline 
were  established  without  the  requisition  of  episcopal  ordina- 
tion. It  should  be  remembered  that  I  am  engaged  in  opening 
and  defending  the  sense  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  as  received 
from  the  Church  of  England.  At  the  same  time,  that,  on  the 
point  of  fact,  she  decidedly  set  her  feet  on  the  ground  of  the 
apostolic  origin  of  Episcopacy,  she  carefully  avoided  passing 
a  judgment  on  the  validity  of  the  ministry  of  other  churches  ; 
or  the  determining,  in  any  shape,  on  the  question  the  last  pro- 
posed. This  line  of  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  Church  has 
left  room  for  considerable  variety  of  sentiment  among  her 
clergy.    For  my  own  part,  I  profess  to  admire  the  moderation 


MODERATE    VIEWS.  349 

of  the  Church  of  England,  transmitted  to  the  Church  in  these 
States,  in  this  particular.  And  I  am  content  to  adopt  the 
words  of  one  of  the  wisest  men  who  ever  wrote  in  the  Church 
of  England,  where,  speaking  of  non-episcopalian  churches, 
he  delivers  himself  as  follows :  '  This,  their  defect  and  imper- 
fection, I  had  rather  lament  in  such  a  case,  than  exagitate ; 
considering  that  men,  oftentimes,  without  any  fault  of  .their 
own,  may  be  driven  to  want  that  kind  of  polity  or  regimen 
which  is  best;  and  to  content  themselves  with  that  which 
either  the  irremediable  error  of  former  times,  or  the  necessity 
of  the  present  hath  cast  upon  them.'" 

And  in  Dissertation  X.,  the  most  elaborate  in  the  volume, 
entitled  Of  Episcopacy,  the  question  is  stated  in  another  form: 
"  Whether  episcopacy  be  obligatory  on  Christians,  in  all  times 
and  places ;  so  that  on  this  is  dependent  the  being 

of  a  Christian  Church?"  The  answer  here  given 

^  views. 

is,  that  it  is  a  duty  to  adhere  to  apostolic  appoint- 
ments, when  perceived  to  be  such,  *'  as  closely  as  possible ; 
at  least  with  no  other  exception  than  cases  of  imperious 
necessity;  the  effects  of  this  to  continue  no  longer  than  the 
crisis  which  gave  occasion  to  them."  Speaking  of  "  the  very 
moderate  ground  taken  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  by  the 
Church  of  England,  in  the  present  matter,"  the  bishop  con- 
tinues :  '*  Certain  it  is,  that  she  did  not,  in  any  of  her  institu- 
tions, say  any  thing  decisive  on  the  question  now  contem- 
plated. Not  only  so,  many  of  her  public  proceedings  show 
her  care  to  avoid  it;  of  which  only  the  following  instance 
shall  be  given.  When  the  episcopacy  was  conveyed  by  that 
Church  to  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  the  reign  of  James  I.,  it 
was  pressed  by  some,  that  the  ministers  sent  for  consecration 
should  previously  be  ordained  deacons  and  priests :  their 
ministerial  character  being  in  virtue  of  ordination  not  epis- 
copal. But  Archbishop  Bancroft  —  the  very  prelate  accused 
by  the  Puritans  of  that  day  of  carrying  the  episcopal  claims 
higher  than  had  been  done  by  his  predecessors  —  overruled 
the  objection  ;  *  lest  the  calling  and  character  of  the  ministry 
in  most  of  the   Reformed   Churches   might  be    questioned.' 


350  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  work  which,  from  the  circumstances  con- 
nected with  it,  has  so  good  pretensions  to  be  considered  as 
evidence  of  the  opinions  of  the  leading  churchmen  of  the 
period  as  Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  Polity.  Of  the  five  books 
then  published,  the  third  is  devoted  to  the  proof  of  what  in- 
cludes the  negative  of  the  present  question.  The  same  senti- 
ment seems  to  have  prevailed  universally  from  the  Reforma- 
tion until  after  the  time  of  Hooker.  At  least,  if  there  be 
opposing  authorities,  they  have  not  come  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  present  writer."  (Pp.  424,  sq.) 

That  the  requirement  of  re-ordination  in  the  case  of  min- 
isters not  episcopally  ordained,  seeking  admission  to  the  min- 
istry in  the  Episcopal  Church,  is  inconsistent  with  this  moderate 
position,  as  many  affirm,  Bishop  White  emphatically  denies : 
"There  is  no  inconsistency."  This  Church  does  "not  judge 
of  the  sufficiency  of  peculiar  circumstances  in  regard  to  others. 
But  she  perceives  no  such  circumstances  in  the  relations  in 
which  she  stands.  For  her  therefore  to  dispense  with  the 
difference  of  grade  in  the  ministerial  character,  when  she 
believes  that  she  discovers  clear  evidence  of  it  m  the  appoint- 
m.ents  of  the  apostles,  would  be  conduct  which  she  could  not 
defend,  on  any  principle  of  consistency." 

The  only  question  of  discipline  productive  of  any  warmth 
of  discussion  in  the  American  churches  of  "the  great  Presby- 
terian family,"  is  the  yet  unsettled  question  re- 
ofTav"      specting  the  true  character,  position,  and  duties  of 

Eldership,  the  ruling  eldership.  Early  in  the  present  cen- 
tury. Dr.  James  P.  Wilson,  a  Presbyterian  minister 
of  high  standing,  published  a  series  of  essays,  [No.  589,] 
assailing  with  much  vigor  of  reasoning  and  a  rough  energy 
of  expression  suited  to  the  strength  of  the  writer's 
Wilson.  convictions,  the  accepted  view  of  the  Lay  Elder- 
ship in  the  Presbyterian  Church.  A  singularly 
crabbed  style  and  uninviting  method  have  prevented  these 
papers  from  receiving  the  attention  or  exerting  the  influence 
to  which  their  sterling  merit  justly  entitles  them.  The  aim 
of  the  author  is  to  demonstrate  "  the  illiteracy,"  as  he  terms 


ORDINATION    OF    RULING    ELDERS.  35I 

it,  "of  making  mute  presbyters  a  characteristic  of  the  primitive 
Church."  "  Of  presbyters  without  authority  to  preach,  neither 
a  word  nor  an  example  is  found  from  the  demise  of  the  hist 
apostle,  unto  the  reformation  in  Switzerland ;  they  neither 
existed  in  the  original  form  of  government,  nor  in  the 
secondary,  which  was  parochial  episcopacy ;  nor  in  that 
which  absorbed  the  rest,  the  diocesan,  which  became,  so  far 
as  we  yet  know,  literally  Catholic.  That  Calvin  did  after- 
wards attempt  to  justify  the  reception  of  lay  presbyters  from 
the  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  his  writings  evince.  It  is 
perfectly  clear,  nevertheless,  that  it  {sic)  was  adopted  at  first 
by  him  as  an  expedient  for  reducing  the  Church  at  Geneva  to 
a  state  of  discipline  which  should  secure  the  reformation  at 
that  place.  The  introduction  of  laymen  originated,  not  from 
a  previous  design  to  introduce  an  inferior  kind  of  presbyters, 
but  from  the  exigencies  of  their  condition.  Having  dropped 
the  office  of  deacon  into  practical  oblivion,  the  next  effort 
appears  to  have  been  to  justify  what  they  had  done  ;  and  as 
this  task  naturally  devolved  upon  the  inventor,  so  no  man 
was  better  qualified  to  essay  its  accomplishment  than  Calvin." 
(Pp.  236-244.) 

This  work  was  probably  called  forth  by  the  publication,  in 
1 83 1,  of  a  volume  on  the  Ruling  Eldership,  by  Dr.  Samuel 
Miller,  of  Princeton,  N.  J.  This  work,  the  expansion  of  a 
sermon  published  twenty  years  previously,  is  a  labored  defence 
of  the  theory  of  Calvin,  adopting  all  his  arguments 

,    .     ,        /        ,,  ,  .  /    .    ^  ^         ^  .Dr.  Miller 

and  mdorsmg  all  his  conclusions.     Un  one  point        ^^  ^^^ 
his  remarks  are   deserving  of  special   attention:     Eldership. 
"That  ruling  elders,  besides  being  regularly  chosen        ^g 
to  office,  should  be  ordained ;  that  is,  publicly  and 
solemnly  designated  and  introduced  to  office  by  appropriate 
formalities,  our  ecclesiastical   constitution   requires,  and  pre- 
scribes a  form  for  the  purpose,  concerning  which 

T      1     ,1  ,  1  r  ■  •      .  ,1      Ordination 

1  shall  only  say,  that  as  tar  as  it  goes,  it  is  well     ^f  Ruling 
devised,  etc.     I  say,  as  far  as  it  goes  ;  for  it  has       Elders. 
been  for  many  years  my  settled  conviction,  that 
the  Ordination  Service  in  question,  in   not  making  the  im- 


352         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

position  of  hands  a  stated  constituent  part  of  it,  is  chargeable 
with  an  omission,  which,  though  not  essential^  and  therefore 
not  a  matter  for  which  it  is  proper  to  interrupt  the  peace  of 
the  Church ;  yet  appears  to  me  incapable  of  a  satisfactory 
defence;  and  which  it  is  my  earnest  hope  may  not  much 
longer  continue  to  be,  as  I  know  it  is  with  many,  matter  of 
serious  lamentation."  (P.  278.) 

Just  ten  years  after  the  republication  in  a  posthumous  vol- 
ume, [No.  589,]  of  Dr.  Wilson's  damaging  assault,  Robert  J. 
Breckinridge,  whose  fame  as  the  champion  of  Presbyterian 

orthodoxy  is  in  all  the  churches,  came  forth  as 
Breckinridee   ^^  advocate  of  the  restoration,  as  he  claimed,  of 

the  Ruling  Eldership  to  its  primitive  position.  In 
a  publication  embracing  the  substance  of  two  arguments 
delivered  before  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia,  in  1843,  [No.  716,] 
the  author  pleads,  with  characteristic  vigor,  for  the  right  of  the 
ruling  eldership  to  unite  with  the  preaching  eldership  in  the 
laying  on  of  hands  in  the  rite  of  ordination.     The  General 

Assembly  of  1842  decided  by  a  unanimous  vote 
r.        1       that  it  was  not  within  the  intent  of  the  Church's 

General 

Assembly,  constitutional  rule  upon  the  subject,  that  ruling 
elders  should  join  in  the  imposition  of  hands  in 
ordination.  This  decision  having  been  reconsidered,  and  the 
question  referred  for  final  settlement  to  the  next  assembly, 
which  met  in  1843,  that  body,  after  a  full  consideration  of  the 
subject,  decided,  by  a  vote  of  138  to  9,  that  the  constitution 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  does  not  authorize  ruling  elders 
to  impose  hands  in  the  ordination  of  ministers. 

"  It  is  truly  mortifying,"  says  the  Princeton  Reviewer,  "  that 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  at  this  period  of  her  history,  should 
be  employed  in  the  juvenile  task  of  laying  again  the  founda- 
tion of  the  doctrine  of  the  laying  on  of  hands."  But  so, 
unhappily,  it  is  :  the  question  of  the  true  character,  position, 
offices,  and  duties  of  the  ruling  elder  is  still  the  subject  of 
debate  in  the  Presbyterian  communion. 

"  Dr.  B.'s  view,  as  set  forth  in  this  publication,  and  in  his 
work,  The  Knowledge  of  God  Subjectively  Cojisidered  (pp.  628, 


DR.    COLIN    CAMPBELL.  353 

sq)  —  a  view  espoused  by  a  very  small  minority  in  the  Pres- 
byterian family  —  is,  that  "in  the  body  of  the  Christian  elders, 
from  their  first  existence,  all,  without  exception,  were  rulers. 
But  a  new  function,  that  of  preaching,  unknown  to  the  elders 
of  the  synagogue,  manifested  itself  among  these  elders;  and 
thereupon,  the  apostles  divided  the  whole  body  of  elders  into 
two  classes,  one  of  which  should  perform  the  preaching  func- 
tion, in  addition  to  all  other  functions,  and  the  other  should 
unite  with  them,  as  before,  in  the  performance  of  all  other 
functions  of  the  elders'  office,  including,  of  course,  the  laying 
on  of  hands  in  the  rite  of  ordination." 

This  theory  of  the  eldership,  it  is  obvious  to  remark, 
involves  the  proper  ministerial,  or  clerical  character  of  the 
ruling  elder.  "  Lay  eldership,"  so  called,  it  is  thus  plain,  is 
not  so  much  a  misnomer  as  a  contradiction  in  terms. 

In  the  Church  of  Scotland  the  same  question  has,  of  late 

years,  awakened  a  fresh  interest,  and  is  even  now  undergoing 

a  renewed  investigation.     A  treatise  from  the  vig- 

orous  pen  of  Dr.  Colin  Campbell,  principal  of  the   -^^  Scotland 

University  of  Aberdeen,  published  at  Edinburgh, 

in  1866,  [No.  793  a,]  contains  a  searching  examination  of  the 

received  theory,  exposing,  with  admirable  candor,  the  incon- 

clusiveness  of  the  arcruments  alle^jed  in  its  support. 

^,  .  ,,  .  ,^       .       .r  r  Dr.  Colin 

Ihe  writer  calls  attention  to  the   signincant  tact,     Campbell 

that  Calvin  originally  based  the  institution  of  lay 
rulers,  not  on  the  text  afterward  alleged  for  a  lay  eldership 
(i  Tim.  V.  17) — the  sole  basis  of  the  theoiy  —  but  on  others 
which  make  no  mention  of  elders,  but  specify  the  office  of 
government,  as,  e.g.,  Rom.  xiii.  8.  {Inst.  iv.  iii.  8.  1543.  The 
Commentary  on  the  Epistles  to  Timothy  appeared  in  1556.  Yet, 
in  a  later  chapter  of  the  Institutes,  (xi.  I,)  lay  rulers  are  classi- 
fied with  presbyters.)  "  While  Calvin  avowedly  derived  from 
the  Bohemian  Church  the  institution  of  lay  assessors,  that 
church,  in  turn,  received  from  him  the  theory  and  interpreta- 
tion of  I  Tim.  V.  17,  by  which  he  had  attempted  to  under- 
prop it." 

The  untenableness  of  the  theory  which  classes  lay  rulers 
23 


354  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

with  presbyters,  our  author  conclusively  evinces  on  the  fol- 
lowing grounds:  i.  There  is  no  support  in  Scripture  for  the 
difference  among  presbyters,  which  this  theory 
TntenabTe  ^^  implies.  2.  The  equality,  inter  se,  of  all  presbyters, 
and  the  interchangeableness  of  the  term  presbyter 
with  that  oi  bishop  —  a  main  point  with  Presbyterians  in  argu- 
ment with  prelatists.  Hence,  "  lay  rulers,  if  presbyters,  must 
also  be  bishops;  and  if  bishops,  then,  also,  pastors!'  .  .  . 
"Strange,"  indeed,  that  a  Presbyterian  divine  should  find  him- 
self, as  Dr.  Campbell  confesses,  "  under  the  necessity  of  main- 
taining against  Presbyterians  the  equality  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment bishop  and  presbyter ! "  3.  The  single  text  alleged, 
truly  interpreted,  affords  the  theory  no  support,  having  no 
bearing  on  the  office  in  question.  4.  Were  the  theory  hon- 
estly followed  out,  and  the  precept  in  i  Tim.  v.  17  obeyed, 
the  ruling  elders  ought  to  be  stipendiaries  of  the  Church,  as 
uniformly,  if  not  so  liberally  maintained  by  it,  as  the  ministers 
of  the  word  and  sacraments.  The  administration  of  the 
Church  would  then  be  entirely  in  the  hands  of  a  professional 
class,  and  the  benefits  ofthe  lay  element  lost.  (Pp.  3,  30,  65.) 

This  view  of  the  question  is  only  a  return  to  the  position 
maintained  by  the  Scottish  Church,  as  early  as  1645,  in  its 
adoption,  through  the  General  Assembly,  of  the  Westminster 
conclusions  of  the  year  preceding.  It  has,  moreover,  received 
the  support  of  some  of  the  most  eminent  theological  writers 
of  Scotland,  during  the  last  two  centuries.  Suffice  it  to  name 
Jameson,  Geo.  Campbell  of  Aberdeen,  and  Hill  of  St.  Andrews. 
The  controversy  concerning  Episcopacy  was  re-opened  in 
Scotland,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  by  the 
publication  of  Dr.  Campbell's  Lectures  on  Ecclesi- 
astical History.  [No.  525.]  Though  a  professed 
Presbyterian,  the  author,  in  this  work,  occupies  the  position 
of  the  Independents,  surrendering,  in  their  favor,  the  ground 
common  to  Presbyterians  and  Episcopalians,  as  to  the  scrip- 
tural application  of  the  word  Church.  He  affirms  that  "  it 
denotes  either  a  single  congregation  of  Christians,  actually  assem- 
bled, or  accustomed  to  assemble  together  in  one  place,  or  the 


SKIiNNER    S     REPLY    T    .    CAMPBELL.  355 

luholc  CJirisdan  comviiinity,  the  Church  universal.  Of  the 
application  of  the  word  in  any  intermediate  sense  between 
these  two,  not  one  instance  can  be  produced  from  Scripture." 
{Led.  vi.,  p.  117.) 

In  regard  to  the  force  of  apostolic  precedent  in  matters  of 
order,  Campbell  teaches  that,  even  when  clearly  proved  in 
favor  of  one  particular  form  of  Church  polity,  the  practice  of 
the  apostles  is  not  sufficient  to  establish  a  y«.y  ^/Ww/w ;  and 
that  a  proved  departure  from  such  practice  does  not  affect  the 
inherent  lawfulness  of  any  system  of  Church  polity.  "  Not 
but  that  a  presumptuous  encroachment  on  what  is  evidently 
so  instituted,  is  justly  reprehensible  in  those  who  are  properly 
chargeable  with  it,  as  is,  indeed,  any  violation  of  order;  .  .  . 
but  the  reprehension  can  affect  those  only  who  are  conscious 
of  the  guilt :  for  the  fault  of  another  will  never  frustrate  to 
me  the  divine  promise,  given  by  the  Messiah  to  all  indis- 
criminately, without  any  limitation,  that  he  who  receiveth 
his  testimony  hath  everlasting  life."  {Lect.  iv.) 

A  clever  review  of  Campbell's  work  appeared  in  1803,  from 
the  pen  of  Bishop  Skinner,  entitled  Primitive  Triitli  and  Order 
Vindicated  from  Modern  Misrepresentation,  [No.  530,]  in  which 
it  is  shown  —  First,  That  the  Lectures,  though  extravagantly 
lauded,  on  their  first  appearance,  as  "  an  accurate  historical 
deduction  of  the  progress  of  Church  power,"  and  as  present- 
ing the  argument  against  Episcopacy  in  its  most  convincing 
form,  yet  contain  nothing  that  had  not  been  often  and  better 
said  before  by  the  more  distinguished  defenders  of  Presbytery. 
Second,  That  the  lecturer,  in  advocating  a  scheme  of  Church 
order  as  different  from  that  established  in  Scotland,  as  it  is 
opposed  to  the  primitive  model,  is  justly  chargeable  with  infi- 
delity to  his  trust,  as  a  divinity  professor  in  a  Presbyterian 
institution,  "  holding  some  of  the  most  distinguished  offices 
which  the  religious  establishment  of  Scotland  has  to  boast 
of."  Third,  That  the  lecturer's  attempt  to  find  support  for 
the  congregational  theory  in  the  L^etters  of  Cyprian,  marked, 
as  it  is,  by  a  singular  absence  of  quotation  or  reference,  in 
proof  or  illustration,  discredits  his  reputation  for  ingenuous- 


356         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

ness.  Fourth,  That  in  his  denunciation  of  "  the  polity  and 
discipline  "  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  a  ''  system  devised 
for  the  express  purpose  of  rendering  the  clerical  character 
odious,  and  the  discipline  contemptible,"  the  lecturer  betrays 
either  inexcusable  ignorance,  or  a  culpable  disregard  of  truth. 
FiftJi,  That  as  a  labored  attempt  on  the  part  of  a  Presbyteriaji  (?) 
professor  to  convince  his  Presbyterian  pupils  of  the  superiority 
of  the  congregational  polity,  the  Lectures  on  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory have  no  claim  to  the  attention  of  Episcopalians. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

Tracts  for  the  Times  —  Distinctive  Prinxiples  of  Anglo-Catholicism 
—  Apostolic  Succession  —  In  Connection  with  the  Sacraments  —  Broad 
Church  View  of  the  Theory  —  Whately's  Kingdom  of  Christ — Buel"s 
Reply  —  Isaac  Taylor  —  "Spiritual  Despotism" — Testimony  to  Epis- 
copacy—  Bishop  O'Brien's  Charge  —  Archer  Butler's  Sermon  —  Neces- 
sity OF  Limitation  —  Principle  of  Accommodation. 

AFRESH  interest  was  imparted  to  the  discussion  of  ques- 
tions of  Church  order,  by  the  publication  of  Tracts  for 
THE  Times,  by  Members  of  the  University  of  Oxford.  [Nos.  619- 
37.]     The  object  of  these  publications,  as  avowed 
by  their  authors,  was,  "to  aid  the  rulers  of  the       ^j^  ^ 
Church  to  meet  the  difficulties  with  which  thev 
had  to  contend,  by   stirring  up   her   ministers  to  ^' 

remember  and  assert  tJic  pozver  ivJiicli  had  been  bestozved  npoji 
them  at  their  ordination,  and  by  giv^ing  her  lay  members  better 
information  concerning  her  constitution  and  principles  ;  by 
imparting  to  them  clearer  views  of  the  foundation  of  her 
claim.s  to  authority,  and  making  them  better  understand  the 
privileges  which  they  enjoy  in  her  communion."  The  import- 
ance of  such  an  object  was  indisputable ;  the  only  question 
was  as  to  the  principles  on  which,  and  the  mode  in  which  it 
was  to  be  best  attained. 

The  distinctive  principles  of  modern  Anglo-Catholicism,  as 
put  forth  in  the  Tracts,  diVQ  the  following:  "  i.  The  doctrine 
of  apostolic  succession,  as  set  forth  in  our  ordinal. 
2.  Baptismal  regeneration,  as  set  forth  in  our  cat-    Distinctive 
echism  and  our  baptismal  service.     3.  The  Eucha-  ^/^"^^^r  V 
ristic    sacrifice,  and  the   real   communion   in   the      olicism. 
body  and  blood  of  our  Lord,  as  set  forth  in  our 
communion   office.     4.  The  appeal  to   the   Church   from  the 

357 


358         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

beginning,  as  the  depositary  and  witness  of  the  truth,  as  set 
forth  in  our  canon  of  1 571."  (Perceval:  A  Collection  of  Papers, 
etc.)  [No.  644.]  These  four  points  are  held  by  the  tractators  as 
the  essential  principles  of  their  system,  '*  having  their  warrant 
in  holy  writ,  and  having  been  taught  authoritatively  by  all 
branches  of  the  Catholic  Church,  in  all  ages." 

The  doctrine  of  apostolic  succession,  as  set  forth  in  the  Tracts, 
embraces  the  following  propositions :  A  commission  to  dis- 
charge the  offices  of  a  spiritual  priesthood  was  first  given  by 

Christ  to  his  apostles,  and  was  by  them  conveyed 
ucrssion     ^^  those  who  followed  them  in  the  same  office,  in 

an  unbroken  line  of  succession,  from  the  first  com- 
mxissioned  to  the  bishops  now  living.  This  commission  has 
been  conveyed  by  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  apostles, 
and  their  successors ;  and  the  successors  of  the  apostles  now 
are  the  chief  pastors  in  every  place,  who  have  received  the 
apostolic  commission.  All  apostolic  churches  are  episcopal, 
but  all  episcopal  churches  are  not  apostolic ;  since  the  chief 
pastors  in  some  Christian  bodies  are  called  bishops,  who  have 
not  received  the  apostolic  commission.  All  so-called  churches 
that  are  without  the  apostolic  succession,  are  not  members  of 
the  Church  Catholic*  The  apostolic  commission  "  empotuers 
its  possessors —  i.  To  admit  into  or  exclude  from  .  .  .  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  any  one  whom  they  judge  deserving  of  it. 

2.  To  bless  and  intercede  for  those  who  are  within  this  king- 
dom, in  a  sense  in  which  no  other  men  can  bless  or  intercede. 

3.  To  make  the  Eucharistic  bread  and  wine  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  in  the  sense  in  which  our  Lord  made  them 
so.  4.  To  enable  delegates  to  perform  this  great  miracle,  by 
ordaining  them  with  imposition  of  hands."  f 

The  Anglo-Catholic  doctrine   of  apostolical  succession  in 

its    connection   with   that    of  the    sacraments    is 

In  connection       ^^^  thus  :   *' A  person  not  commissioned  from 

with  the  ^  r  1  •  J 

Sacraments,   the  bishop  may  use  the  words   of  baptism,  and 
sprinkle  or  bathe  with  the  water;  but  there  is  no 

*  Churckn^an's  Manual.  Tract  No.  i.  f  Froude's  Remains,  p.  41. 


BROAD  CHURCH  VIEW  OF  THE  THEORY.     359 

promise  from  Christ  that  such  a  man  shall  admit  souls  to  tJic 
kingdom  of  lieaveri.  A  person  not  commissioned  may  break 
bread  and  pour  out  wine,  but  it  can  afford  no  comfort  to  any 
to  receive  it  at  his  hands;  because  there  is  no  warrant  from 
Christ  to  lead  communicants  to  suppose,  that  while  he  does  so 
here  on  earth,  they  will  be  partakers  in  the  Saviour's  heavenly 
body  and  blood."  {Tract  No.  xxxv.) 

And  again:  **  And  this  is  a  matter  pertaining  to  each  man's 
salvation.  For  that  bread  and  cup  are  the  appointed  means 
whereby  the  faithful  are  to  partake  of  Christ's  body  and  blood 
offered  for  their  sins.  ...  In  the  judgment  of  the  Church  it 
makes  no  less  difference  than  this :  Whether  the  bread  and 
cup  which  he  partakes  of  shall  be  to  him  Christ's  body  and 
blood,  or  no.  I  repeat  it:  in  the  judgment  of  the  Church,  the 
Eucharist,  administered  without  apostolical  commission,  may, 
to  pious  minds,  be  a  very  edifying  ceremony;  but  it  is  not 
that  blessed  thing  which  our  Saviour  graciously  meant  it  to 
be ;  it  is  not  '  verily  and  indeed  taking  and  receiving '  the 
body  and  blood  of  Him,  our  Incarnate  Lord."  (Tract  No.  lii.) 

"The  doctrine  of  the  apostolic  succession  as  a  rule  of  prac- 
tice," is  stated  by  Froude  in  these  terms : 

"  I.  The  participation  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  is 
essential  to  the  maintenance  of  Christian  life  and  hope  in  each 
individual.  2.  It  is  conveyed  to  individual  Christians  only  by 
the  hands  of  the  successors  of  the  apostles  and  their  dele- 
gates. 3.  The  successors  of  the  apostles  are  those  who  are 
descended  in  a  direct  line  from  them  by  the  imposition  of 
hands  ;  and  the  delegates  of  these  are  the  respective  presbyters 
whom  each  has  commissioned."  (Letter  to  Perceval.) 

In  reference  to  this  article  of  the  Anglo-Catholic  scheme, 
the  remarks  of  Bishop  Thirlwall,  as  presenting  the  view  of  a 
well-known  school  of  modern  Anglicans,  are  worthy  of  atten- 
tion :    "  It  is  hardly  disputed  that  what  is  called 

the  high  doctrine  of  the  apostolic  succession,  in-     ^°^     r"/^^ 

-     ,  .  ^  view  of  the 

cludmg,  that  is,  not  only  the  historical  fact  that       theory. 

the  ministry  of  our  Church  is  derived  by  uninter- 
rupted descent  from   the   apostles,  but  likewise  that  it  was 


360         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

established  by  them  as  a  permanent  and  unalterable  institu- 
tion, to  be  continued  according  to  certain  invariable  regula- 
tions—  it  is  hardly  disputed  that  this  doctrine  has  been  held  by 
so  large  a  part  of  our  best  divines,  and  has  received  so  much 
apparent  countenance  from  the  anxiety  shown  to  preserve  suc- 
cession, when  it  was  in  danger  of  interruption,  that  it  would 
be  unreasonable  to  complain  of  it  as  a  novelty,  or  even  to 
represent  it  as  being  now  exclusively  held  by  a  particular 
school. 

"  *  Men  may  hold  episcopacy  to  be  divine,  and  the  episco- 
pacy of  apostolical  succession  to  be  the  only  true  episcopacy, 
but  yet  they  may  utterly  reject  the  notion  of  its  being  essen- 
tial to  the  efficacy  of  the  sacraments.'  And  the  opinion  of 
such  a  connection  between  the  two  doctrines  has  been  con- 
demned both  as  groundless  and  pernicious.  But  there  is  a 
sense  in  which  the  connection  between  them  would  be  neither 
so  arbitrary,  nor  pregnant  with  such  dangerous  consequences. 
If  any  one  believes  that  the  ministerial  commission  may  be 
traced  through  the  apostles  to  the  Head  of  the  Church,  and 
that  it  was  originally  designed  to  comprehend  the  administra- 
tion of  the  sacraments,  then  he  will  be  naturally  led  to  con- 
sider the  character  of  the  minister  as  a  part  of  the  ordinance ; 
and  it  will  follow  that  he  cannot  look  upon  it  as  altogether 
immaterial  whether  this  part  be  absent  or  not :  he  will  not 
venture  to  say  that  the  ordinance  would  be,  to  all  intents  and 
purposes,  the  same  without  it;  and  this  he  might  express  by 
saying  that  the  apostolical  succession  is  requisite  for  the  due 
application  of  it.  But  it  would  not  follow  that  he  undertakes 
to  pronounce  how  far  it  is  an  essential  part,  or  to  what  degree 
its  absence  affects  the  efficacy  of  the  rite,  or  that  there  are 
many  circumstances  in  which  it  may  be  safely  omitted,  and 
in  which  its  place  will  be  surely  and  effectually  supplied. 

"  In  a  word,  there  appears  to  be  nothing  in  the  doctrine 
itself  that  is  exclusive  or  uncharitable  beyond  what  is  implied 
in  a  strong  preference  of  one  communion  over  another.  Its 
character  will  depend  on  the  temper  in  which  it  is  embraced ; 
and  since  those  who  maintain  it  most  firmlv,  still  declare  their 


WHATELY's     kingdom     of    CHRIST.  361 

belief  that '  God's  favor  is  not  limited  to  the  bounds  of  his  her- 
itage, but  that,  in  the  Church  or  out  of  the  Church,  every  one 
that  calleth  on  the  name  of  the  Lord,  with  a  pure  and  perfect 
heart,  shall  be  saved,'  we  would  hope  that  its  influence  may, 
in  most  cases,  be  found  consistent  both  with  charity  and  hu- 
mility." [Charge,  1842.) 

This  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  expression  of  the  attitude 
toward  the  High-Anglican  theory  of  a  school  of  churchman- 
ship  in  the  Anglican  communion  variously  denominated  the 
Liberal,  the  Broad,  or  the  Latitudinarian ;  a  school  claiming  to 
be  distinguished  by  its  practical  assertion  of  unfettered  intel- 
lectual freedom  in  the  discussion  of  theological  questions  —  a 
freedom  not  unguarded,  however,  it  is  affirmed,  by  reverence 
for  the  Church's  dogmatic  definitions. 

Among  the  numerous  and  able  contemporaneous  protests 
against  the  extreme  views  of  Church  order  advo- 
cated by  the  writers  of  the  Oxford  Tracts,  not  the   Kingdom  of 
least  worthy  of  mention  is  a  volume  put  forth  by       Christ. 
Archbishop  Whately,  under  the  title  of  The  King-         g 
dom  of  Christ,  etc.,  [No.  661,]  treating  mainly  of 
the  constitution,  powers,  and  ministry  of  the  Church  as  ap- 
pointed by  Christ  Himself. 

While  claiming  our  admiration  for  its  clearness  of  statement 
and  cogency  of  argument  in  support  of  some  important  Scrip- 
ture truths,  as  against  the  assaults  of  the  Romanizing  faction 
in  the  Church  of  England,  this  treatise  is  yet  open  to  the 
charge  of  contemplating  the  Church  too  exclusively  from  the 
mere  human  point  of  view,  a  radical  defect  which  goes  far  to 
neutralize  its  influence  as  a  corrective  of  the  errors  against 
which  it  is  specifically  aimed.  **  Holding  that  no  form  of 
Church  government  is  of  divine  appointment,  surrendering 
almost  all  the  Episcopalian  positions,  and  adopting  many  of 
the  Presbyterian,  the  author  seeks  to  prove  that  all  the  powers 
and  privileges  of  the  Church  may  be  traced  up  to  the  powers 
and  privileges  inherent  in  a  mere  human  and  voluntary  society." 

A  vigorously  written  reply  to  Dr.  Whately's  work  appeared 
in  1844,  from  the  pen  of  an  American  clergyman,  under  the 


362         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

title  of  TJie  Apostolical  System  of  the  Church  Defended.     An  un- 
compromising advocate  of  the  High  Church  theory, 
Reply        ^^  author,  Rev.  Samuel  Buel,  expresses  his  con- 
viction that  the   influence  at  once  seductive  and 
pernicious  which  he  does  not  hesitate  to  ascribe  to  the  work 
which  he  reviews,  is  to  be  traced,  not  to  the  intrinsic  force  of 
its  arguments,  or  the  truth  of  its  conclusions,  "  but  to  its  con- 
fident air,  its  plausible  sophisms,  its  misrepresentation  of  the 
views  which  it  opposes,  and  especially  to  its  agreeableness  to 
the  taste  of  the  religious  world,  and  its  recognition  and  defence 
of  the  position  of  various  denominations  of  professing  Chris- 
tians." [No.  684.] 

More  efficient  as  a  counteractive  to  the  anti-Reformation  ten- 
dencies of  religious  thought  in  the  early  days  of  the  Tractarian 
movement,  was  a  work  antedating  that  of  Whately  by  several 
years,  entitled  Spiritual  Despotism,  by  Isaac  Taylor, 
Taylor.       \)^^'  593,]  ^  publication  hailed  on  its  first  appear- 
ance by  Sir  James  Stephen,  the  most  discriminat- 
ing  critic  of  his  day,  "  as  the  most  original,  com- 
prehensive, and  profound  contribution  which  any  living  writer 
in  our  country  has  made  to  the  science  of  ecclesiastical  polity." 
[Essays,  p.  81). 

The  main  purpose  of  this  volume  is  to  point  out  the  unten- 
ableness  of  certain  prevailing  opinions  in  reference,  first,  to 
the  alliance  between  Church  and  State ;  secondly,  to  the  main- 
tenance of  the  clergy  through  the  medium  of  a  legal 
Despotism     Provision ;  and  thirdly,  to  episcopacy,  which,  the  au- 
thor holds,  is  sanctioned  by  apostolic  practice,  ap- 
proved by  the  common  sense  of  mankind  in  parallel  instances, 
and    at    once    demanded,  and   insensibly  introduced   by,  the 
spread  of  Christianity. 

"The  Scripture  evidence  alone,  and  unaided  by  learned 
research,  can  never  be  so  presented,"  says  our  author,  "  to  the 
mass  of  Christians  as  to  command  their  assent  to  this  or  that 
system,  as  apostolic  and  unchangeable."  ..."  Those  who  read 
Church  history  purely  as  history,  will  not  hesitate  to  con- 
clude that  nine  out  of  ten  of  the  churches  of  the  first  century 


SPIRITUAL    DESPOTISM.  363 

were  episcopal ;  or  that  nineteen  out  of  twenty  of  those  of 
the  second  century,  and  almost  all  of  the  third,  acknowledged 
this  form  of  government.  The  orthodoxy  of  the  great  mass 
of  Christians  in  those  ages,  and  their  episcopacy,  are  two 
prominent  facts  that  meet  us,  directly  or  implicitly,  on  almost 
every  page  of  the  extant  remains  of  those  times.  The  same 
method  of  quotation,  and  the  same  misrepresentation  of  evi- 
dence which  enable  the  ingenious  author  of  the  History  of 
Early  Opinions  to  throw  a  shade  over  the  first  of  these  im- 
portant facts,  may  enable  an  opponent  of  Episcopacy  to  put  us 
in  doubt  concerning  the  second.  But  no  method  sanctioned 
by  truth  and  honesty  will  do  it. 

"  This  system  of  polity  proves  itself  to  be  the  spontaneous 
form  of  external  Christianity,  whenever  the  natural  course  of 
things  (during  a  prosperous  condition  of  the  Church)  is  not 
interfered  with  by  special  opinions  or  prejudices. 

"  Christianity,  fully  brought  to  bear  upon  human  nature,  and 
allowed  to  draw  into  its  service  all  gifts  and  talents,  natural 
and  divine,  will  spontaneously  tend  to  the  episcopal  model. .  . 
The  Church  needs  services  to  be  performed,  not  of  one  kind, 
but  of  many ;  and  nature  actually  provides  persons  adapted 
to  that  diversity  of  service.  Among  fifty  or  a  hundred  clerical 
persons,  some  will  be  found  whose  bold  and  ardent  zeal  calls 
them  into  the  field  of  labor  and  danger  in  carrying  the  gospel 
upon  new  ground ;  some,  whose  tastes  for  intellectual  pur- 
suits, and  whose  faculty  of  acquisition  mark  them  for  the 
closet,  or  for  the  chair  of  catechetical  instruction;  some,  whose 
powers  of  utterance  and  flow  of  soul  challenge  them  for  the 
pulpit;  some,  whose  gentleness  of  spirit,  and  whose  placid 
skill  fit  them  for  the  difficult  task  of  the  personal  cure  of  souls; 
some,  whose  philanthropy  and  self-denying  love  forbid  them 
to  be  happy  anywhere  but  among  the  poor  and  wretched ;  and 
some,  moreover,  although  it  be  a  few,  whose  calmness  of  judg- 
ment and  temper,  whose  comprehensiveness  of  understanding, 
whose  paternal  sentiments  and  personal  dignity,  declare  them, 
without  mistake,  to  be  destined  to  the  throne  of  government. 


364         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

We  may  decr\'  Episcopacy,  but  the  Lord  sends  us  bishops, 

whether  or  not  we  will  avail  ourselves  of  the  boon."  {Scrt.  iv.) 

These  deliberate  conclusions  of  a  layman  who  had  been 

trained  in  Non-conformist  notions  and  modes  of  worship,  and, 

after  mature  investigation  of  the  points  of  differ- 

^^  ence  between  the  English  Dissenters  and  the  Es- 

Episcopaq^.  *=• 

tablished  Church,  passed  over  to  the  communion 
of  the  latter,  constitute  a  testimony  in  behalf  of  the  episcopal 
scheme  of  polity,  which  no  candid  mind  can  disregard. 

Among  the  more  valuable  contributions  to  the  discussion 
called  forth  by  the  Oxford  movement,  there  are  two  deserving 
of  special  mention,  as  the  productions  of  repre- 
sentative divines  of  the  Church  of  Ireland.  The 
first  is  a  Charge  delivered  to  his  clergy  by  Bishop  O'Brien, 
of  the  united  dioceses  of  Ossory,  Ferns,  and  Leighlin,  [No. 
667  ;]  the  second,  a  sermon,  entitled  "  Primitive  Church  Prin- 
ciples not  Inconsistent  with  Universal  Christian  Sympathy," 
by  William  Archer  Butler,  late  professor  in  the  University 
of  Dublin. 

Dr.  O'Brien's  Charge  contains  a  clear  and  comprehensive 

account  of  the  Oxford  movement  from  its  inception,  and  a 

concise  exposition  of  the  whole  Anglo-Catholic  scheme.  "All 

OUR  GREAT  DIVINES,"  says  Bishop  O'Brien,  "  who 

^, '^  .°P       maintain  the  reality  and  the  advantas^es  of  a  suc- 

O  Bnen's  "^  ,      ,      .         ,       r        • 

Charge.  cession,  'from  the  apostles  time,  of  episcopally 
consecrated  bishops,  and  episcopally  ordained  min- 
isters in  the  Church,  and  who  rejoice  in  the  possession  of  it 
by  our  own  Church,  as  a  signal  blessing  and  privilege,  7iot  mly 
did  not  maifitain  that  this  is  absolutely  csscjitial  to  the  being  of 
the  Clmrch^  but  are  at  pains  to  make  it  clear  that  they  do  not  hold 
that  it  is.'' 

Professor  Butler's  sermon  may  be  taken  as  a  candid  exposi- 
tion of  the  views  of  the  moderate,  or,  as  they 

Prof.  Butler's      ,  ,  ,,.  .,i,rA 

Sei-mon       choose  to  be  styled,    conservative    school  of  An- 
glican divines,  who  claim  to  occupy  the  safe  mid- 
way position  between  High  Anglicanism,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  Low-Church  Evangelicalism,  on  the  other. 


PROFESSOR    butler's    SERMON.  365 

"The  spirituality  of  our  relifrion,"  writes  Prof.  Butler,  "  is 
marshalled,  by  one  hostile  division  in  the  Church,  against  its 
authorized  polity  —  the  polity  asserted,  by  another,  in  a  form 
that  too  often  obscures  or  overlooks  the  spirituality.  It  may 
be  well  to  try  if  we  cannot,  with  St.  Paul,  rejoice  to  see  and  to 
welcome  both.  .  .  .  By  one  party  it  is  openly  professed  that  the 
polity  of  the  Church  and  ministry  of  Christ  is  entirely  a 
matter  of  temporary,  occasional,  variable  expediency;  that  all 
bodies  and  all  individuals  who  believe  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
are  equally  contemplated  in  His  original  charter  and  equally 
realize  His  original  design.  By  the  other  it  is  usually  main- 
tained with  as  resolute  a  conviction,  that  the  one  constitution 
of  the  Church  and  her  ministry,  being  in  every  element  essen- 
tially divine,  forms  the  sole  exclusive  machinery  of  human 
salvation;  that  to  it  alone  the  sanctifying  graces  of  the  gospel 
are  promised ;  and  that  there  exists  no  ground  in  the  New 
Testament  for  anticipating  that  they  can  ever  travel  out  of  the 
channel  it  affords  for  their  transmission.  The  eager  advocates 
of  each  of  these  views  are  so  possessed  with  the  absolute 
truth  of  the  main  principles  for  which  they  struggle,  as  to 
overlook  the  enormous  difficulties  that  challenge  them  when 
they  descend  to  the  swa^^X^  facts  of  the  case;  when  the  bold 
theory  of  the  latitudinarian  is  met,  not  only  by  the  internal 
improbability  of  his  supposition,  but  by  the  clear  evidence  of 
Scripture  and  apostolic  antiquity ;  when  the  rigorous  scheme 
of  his  opponent  is  encountered  by  the  overwhelming  evidence 
of  daily  experience,  establishing  by  the  most  decisive  attesta- 
tions, by  proofs  which,  if  we  reject,  we  must  reject  all  human 
reasoning  on  religion,  that  the  purifying  and  saving  graces  of 
the  gospel  are  not  limited,  as  he  would  affirm,  but  extend 
through  almost  every  community  in  which  the  leading  doc- 
trines of  the  faith  of  Christ  are  preached. 

"  When  views  thus  contradictory  and  thus  extreme  are  put 
forth ;  when  it  is  certain  they  cannot  both  be  strictly  true ; 
when  both  may  be  made  in  their  degree  plausible  —  and  yet 
facts  exist  that  seem  inconsistent  with  either  —  the  most  valu- 
able service  that  can  be   rendered  to  the  public  mind  is  the 


366         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

work  of  limitation;  the  attempt  to  show  under  what  quahfi- 

cations,  principles  true  in  themselves,  ought  to  be  accepted, 

so  as  to  make  them  consistent  with  others  of  equal 

ecessiyo     ^Q^<^2a^\^r ^  ^  ^  ^  Just  and   strict  views,  then,  of  the 

limitation.  ^  -^ 

original  polity  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  of 
our  obligation  to  preserve  and  transmit  that  polity,  are  theoret- 
ically consistent  with  a  full  recognition  of  the  fact  of  great 
and  genuine  piety  existing  in  irregular  and  less  happily  con- 
structed communities  ;  of  the  consequent  possibility  and  pro- 
priety of  our /r<^r//r^//;/ sympathizing  with  many  of  their  pro- 
jects of  benevolence,  and  of  our  cherishing  a  Christian  and 
charitable  affection  for  their  godly  members.  This  principle, 
that  a  strong  obligation  to  a  particular  polity  may  coexist 
with  a  general  law  of  divine  benevolence,  might  be  exempli- 
fied largely.  . .  . 

"Another  view  of  this  question  which  leads  to  the  same 

result  is  that  derived  from  what  may  be  called  the  principle  of 

accommodation.     By  this  I  mean  the  principle  observable  in 

God's  merciful  dispensations,  of  suitmg  Himself  to 

Principle  of  ^^  infirmities  and  errors  of  His  creatures,  by  occa- 

accommo-     gj^j^^^  variations  of  His  stated  laws  without  anv 

dation.  " 

repeal  of  those  laws  themselves.  All  mercy  is  an 
accommodation  of  this  kind.  Is  it,  then,  unlikely  (a)  that 
God  should  appoint  a  special  organization  of  the  means  of 
grace  in  His  Church  ?  (b)  that  when  that  organization  has  been 
more  or  less  impaired,  He  should  condescend  to  continue  His 
gifts  in  a  manner  accommodated  to  the  alteration  ?  Nay,  it  is 
supposable  that  the  whole  body  of  (irregular)  systems,  though 
human  and  unauthorized,  may  be  found  to  form  designed  mem- 
bers in  avast  scheme  of  divine  moral  government  ofzuhich  the 
Church  itself  is  as  yet  but  a  part,  though  the  noblest  part.  ...  In 
order  to  save  the  pious  Dissenter  we  are  not  forced  to  make 
his  irregular  society  an  integral  portion  of  the  mystical  body 
of  Christ.  The  mercy  of  God  secures  his  salvation,  when  he 
is  saved,  on  deeper  grounds  than  this  "  —  the  ground  of  "  the 
mystical  membership  with  Christ  "  — a  grace  which  "  all  other 
graces  presuppose."    {Serm.  xxiv.) 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

Church  Questions  in  Germany  —  Mohler's  "Unity  in  the  Church"  — 
Analysis  of  the  Work  —  Rothe's  Anfange,  etc.  —  A  Protestant 
Counterpart — His  Theory  of  the  Church  —  Based  on  the  Hegelian 
Principle  —  Theory  of  the  Origin  of  the  Episcopate  —  Stahl's  Theory 
OF  THE  Church  —  The  Neo-Lutheran  and  the  Anglo-Catholic  Funda- 
mentally One  —  Schleiermacher's  Theory  —  More  Recent  Views  — 
Schenkel's  Exposition  of  the  Protestant  View  —  Conclusion, 

IN  Germany  a  fresh  interest  in  the  discussion  of  questions 
relating  to  the  Church  seems  to  have  been  awakened  by 
the  publication  of  Mohler's  Einheit  in  dcr  Kirchc,  [No.  813 ;]  a 
work  of  which  Rothe  writes  :  "  I  never  return  to  it       ^i      , 

Church 

without  joyous  admiration  of  its  natively  powerful,  Questions  in 
fresh,  and  in  the  main,  true  as  well  as  deep  com-     ^^'■"^''^"y- 
prehension  of  the  innermost  self-consciousness  of        ^^^5- 
the  primitive  Church."  (Anfmige,  ix.) 

Of  a  work  so  little  known  and  which  is  not  likely  to  be 
translated,  a  brief  analysis  may  not  here  be  out  of  place.     The 
work  is  divided  into  two  parts ;  the  first  treating 
of  The  Unity  of  the  Spirit,  the  second,  of  The  Unity  ^.  ^^'^^''] 

^     ,      T^  ,        ^  ,      Emheitinder 

0/  the  Body  —  the  Church.  The  former  is  sub-  Kirche. 
divided  into  four  chapters:  I.  Of  Mystical  Unity 
—  the  Unity  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  communication  of  which 
is  conditioned  by  that  individual  reception  of  Christianity,  on 
the  part  of  the  faithful,  which  unites  all  believers  in  one  com- 
munion, through  which,  also.  He  communicates  Himself  to  the 
yet  non-believing,  in  which  the  divine  life  maintains  and  trans- 
mits itself,  (inward  tradition,)  and  thereby  produces  in  us  the 
love-  through  which  Christ  is  communicated,  of  which  wc 
become  conscious  only  in  the  communion  of  the  faithful. 

II.  Of  sensible  (verstandigc)  Unity.     Under  this   head   are 
treated  these  topics  :  Doctrine,  the  intelligent  expression  of  the 

367 


368         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Christian  spirit ;  the  understanding  of  the  written  word  con- 
ditioned through  the  Spirit ;  the  diffusion  of  Christianity  by 
means  of  the  living  Word,  (external  tradition  ;)  the  determina- 
tion of  the  true  doctrine  by  the  inquiries  of  the  whole  body  of 
believers  ;  the  inviolable  oneness  of  Scripture  —  the  embodied 
expression  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  beginning  of  Christianity, 
through  the  specially  gifted  apostles,  and  of  tradition,  which, 
extending  through  all  times,  at  every  moment  living  and 
active,  yet  at  the  same  time  embodying  itself,  in  the  expres- 
sion of  this  Spirit,  animating  the  collective  body  of  believers. 

III.  Of  variety  or  inidtiplicity  without  unity,  as  exemplified  in 
the  various  heresies,  of  which  freedom  of  inquiry  is  the  funda- 
mental principle. 

IV.  Oi  unity  in  diversity,  or  imdtiplicity :  the  preservation  of 
individuality  in  the  unity  of  the  faithful,  the  unity  of  the  re- 
vealed faith,  which,  under  variety  of  form,  all  the  faithful  alike 
have,  as  the  foundation  of  the  true  knowledge  of  God;  in  the 
Church  the  greatest  variety  in  regard  to  Christian  usages, 
manners,  and  customs ;  the  true  nature  of  controversies  in  the" 
Church  ;  freedom  of  worship.  Such  is  a  bare  enumeration  of 
the  subjects  discussed  in  the  first  division  of  the  work. 

The  second  "^-BiXt — of  the  Unity  of  the  Church  —  is  occupied 
with  the  discussion  of  the  topics  following  :  I.  Of  the  bishop, 
in  whose  person,  as  the  image  of  the  love  of  the  Church, 
corporate  unity  is  summed  up.  (b)  From  the  bishop  ascent 
is  made  to  unity  in  metropolitans,  (c)  Of  synods,  {d)  From 
synods  an  ascent  to  the  unity  of  the  collective  episcopate, 
(formal  union  of  all  Churches  in  their  bishops ;)  so  that  to  the 
inner  spiritual  unity  the  external  fully  corresponds  — a  result 
rendered  attainable  by  means  of  the  metropolitan  bond. 

And  yet  while  the  collective  Church  organization  presents 
itself  as  the  love  of  the  faithful,  manifesting  itself  in  definite 
forms,  it  still  falls  short  of  the  point  of  final  development ; 
viz.,  the  manifestation  of  the  unity  of  the  episcopate,  and  of 
the  faithful  collectively,  in  one  Church  and  its  bishop,  which 
is  the  living  middle  point  of  the  living  unity  of  the  whole 
Church  —  the  Roman  Primacy.     The  successive  steps  in  the 


rotiie's  theory  of  the  church.  369 

development  of  this  august  hierarchal  system,  culminating  in 

the  papal  monarchy,  are  traced  in  this  work  by  the  hand  of  a 

master. 

As    a    Protestant    counterpart    to    Mohler's    Einhcit   in  do* 

KircJic,  Rothe's  Anfduge  dcr  ChristlicJicn  Kh'chc,  [No.  817,]  is 

deserving  of  special  attention.     This  volume  is  well  described 

by  Dr.  Schaff  as  "  consisting,  for  the  most  part,       _    ,   , 
r  1-       1        ,  11  •  •  Rothe's 

of  an  exceedmgly  thorough  and  acute  mvestiga-  Anfan^e,  etc. 

tion  of  the  origin  and  development  of  the  epis- 
copal constitution,  and  (what  is  closely  connected  with  this) 
of  the  Catholic  doctrine  concerning  the  historical,  visible 
Church,  its  unity,  holiness,  catholicity,  apostolicity,  and  exclu- 
siveness.  It  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  episcopate,  as  a 
necessary  substitute  for  the  apostolate,  in  maintaining  and  pro- 
moting unity,  reaches  back  even  to  the  days  of  St.  John,  and 
thus  has  the  apostolic  sanction,  and  that  this  idea  of  the  Church 
arose  in  the  first  centuries  by  an  inward  necessity." 

Rothe's  view  of  the  Church  is  succinctly  stated  by  Schenkel, 
thus :  "  The  religious  spirit  is  essential  to  morality,  and 
morality  answers  to  its  idea  only  in  so  far  as  it  is,  at  the  same 
time,  piety.     In  the  true  moral  development,  civil  ^^.    ^ 

'  ^       -^  :     .  .      .      Ills  theory  of 

society,  which  is  properly  moral  association,  is  in  the  Church, 
itself  religious  communion,  that  is,  the  Church. 
The  Church  is,  emphatically,  the  communion  of  piety  as  such. 
It  is,  therefore,  morally  indispensable,  that  every  man  have  a 
part  in  the  Church;  for  only  thus  can  his  part  in  other  asso- 
ciations have  moral  validity.  It  follows  that  when  humanity 
becomes  perfect,  the  Church  vanishes  ;  for  then  the  sphere  of 
the  moral  and  that  of  the  religious  communion  become  one 
and  the  same.  Hence  the  Church  disappears  in  proportion 
as  the  State  becomes  perfect.  This  gradual  solution  of  tlie 
Church  in  the  State  can  take  place  only  by  the  State's  becom- 
ing essentially  and  truly  a  religious  body,  a  kingdom  of  God, 
a  theocracy  in  the  highest  sense.  The  Church  remains  indis^ 
pensable  as  the  communion  of  entire  humanity,  so  long  as 
particular  States  are  not  perfectly  organized  into  one  complete 
24 


W 


370  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

national  system,  taking  cognizance  of  all  the  moral  interests 
of  mankind. 

"  To  quote  Rothe's  own  words :  *  As  long  as  the  single 
national  State  has  not  completed  its  development  as  a  State, 
the  extent  of  the  ethical  communion  of  the  people  is  not  yet 
completely  embraced  in  their  religious  fellowship;  that  is,  the 
political  body  (the  State)  does  not  include  and  swallow  up  the 
religious  communions.  In  such  a  state  of  things,  there  must 
of  course  be  a  Church  alongside  of  the  State.  But  the  Church, 
as  a  distinct  body,  must  also  recede  and  be  dissolved  just  in 
proportion  as  the  State  approximates  to  the  perfection  of  its 
development.'  "  (Ethik,  ii.,  pp.  145,  sq}j 

"  But  in  the  present  state  of  Christendom,  and  especially 
from  the  Protestant  point  of  view,  we  may  always  see  the  indi- 
cations that  the  cJmrchly  stage  of  the  historical  development 
of  Christianity  is  past,  and  that  the  Christian  mind  has  already 
entered  on  its  moral,  i.  e.,  civil  period.  Christianity  no  longer 
has  its  essential  form  in  the  Church.  Its  inherent  tendency 
is  to  transcend  the  Church ;  to  make  all  secular  affairs  its 
sphere ;  to  put  on  the  living  form  which  is,  in  itself,  moral. 
Rothe  considers  the  Reformation  as  the  turning-point,  where 
Christianity  passed  from  the  churchly  stage  into  the  political, 
or  assumed  its  just  position  in  relation  to  human  society  at 
lai-ge ;  and  where  it  abolished  the  Church  as  to  its  principle. 
Hence  Protestantism  has  produced  nothing  like  a  really  inde- 
pendent Church,  and  no  Church  constitution  worthy  of  the 
name.  Rothe  does  not  believe  in  the  possibility  of  a  better 
reconstruction  of  our  Church  institutions.  The  old  Protestant 
Church  is  on  the  way  to  dissolution,  and  the  new,  which  rises 
out  of  it,  must  not  be  again  a  ChiircJi.  The  Church  thus  ac- 
quiesces in  her  present  declining  grandeur,  strives  after  release 
into  a  higher  form  of  Christian  fellowship,  and  translates  the 
chiirdily  piety  into  the  piety  of  the  Christian  conscionsncssy 
[Anfdnge,  i.,  pp.  42,  sqq.     Ethik,  i.  418;  ii.  145  ;  iii.  1009,  sq.) 

Rothe's  theory  assumes  that  the  State  is  the  moral  commu- 
nion;  whereas  it  is,  in  point  of  fact,  only  one  particular  form 
of  moral  communion  or  association,  viz.,  the  communion  of  law. 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    EPISCOPATE.  37 1 

It  is  not  therefore  its  province  to  resolve  into  itself  all  possi- 
ble forms  of  moral  association,  but  rather  to  protect  them 
by  its  legal  authority.     Rothe's  conception  of  the 
Church  is  based  on  the  Hef^elian  principle  that  the  ,,     „     ,• 

i^  t^  tr  the  Hegelian 

moral  ideal  is  realized  in  the  State,  or  that  the     principle. 
State  is,  or  should  be,  the  realization  of  the  whole 
moral  idea;  a  position  wholly  untenable,  for  the  moral  idea 
requires  various  forms  for  its  full  manifestation,  and  the  State 
is  only  one  of  them.     The  Church,  as  an  ideal  communion  of  . 
all  believers,  is  fundamentally  different  from  the  State,  which, 
as  a  legal  institution,  must  have  external  limits.     The  Church, 
in  all  her  forms,  universal  and  national,  is  designed  to  realize 
piety;  the  State,  as  such,  is  not.     A  moral,  civil  society  is  not 
a  pious  communion.     Not  that  morality  is,  in  itself,  essentially 
different  from  piety ;  for  the  pious  spirit  produces  the  moral 
act.     Piety  is  the  productive  factor,  morality  the  result. 

"  Rothe's  theory,  which  is  that  of  a  perfect  theocracy,  can- 
not, it  is  evident,  be  applied  in  any  earthly  condition  of  the 
Church.  His  ideal  State  is  the  kingdom  of  God,  as  it  will  be 
only  under  the  immediate,  eternal  reign  of  Christ,  when  the 
dualism  between  State  and  Church  will  wholly  disappear." 
(//■^r/^^^,  vii.,  pp.  597-8.) 

Rothe's  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  Episcopate  may  be  briefly 
stated  :  When  Jerusalem  was  destroyed,  with  it  was  destroyed 
also  the  visible  centre  of  the  Church ;  and  the  need  arose  for 
a  new  organization  to  preserve  the  unity  of  the 
Christian  body.     This  body  had  hitherto  existed  O^s^^^f  ^he 

r    1-     •  •     1  Episcopate. 

as  the  aggregate  of  distmct,  mdependent  congre- 
gations, having  their  bond  of  union  simply  in  the  profession 
of  a  common  faith,  not  bound  together  in  one  whole  by  any 
permanent  external  organization.     In  other  words,  there  was 
as  yet  no  Catholic  CJiurcJi. 

This  conception  of  the  Church  is  first  apparent  in  the  Epis- 
tles of  Ignatius ;  and  it  arose  in  the  period  intermediate  be- 
tween the  downfall  of  Jerusalem  and  the  end  of  the  first  cen- 
tury.    Its  development  is  due  to  the  apostles  then  surviving, 


3/2  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

especially  St.  John,  to  whom  is  to  be  referred  the  chief  agency 
in  the  organization  of  the  new  constitution. 

The  evidence  of  this  united  action  on  the  part  of  the  apostles 
consists  of  the  following  particulars  :  Eusebius  relates  that 
after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  the  surviving  apostles  and  personal 
disciples  of  the  Lord,  with  his  kinsmen  then  living,  met  to- 
gether, and  after  due  deliberation,  unanimously  appointed 
Symeon  the  son  of  Clopas  to  be  the  successor  of  James.  This 
second  apostolic  council,  it  may  well  be  supposed,  did  not  con- 
fine their  action  to  the  appointment  of  a  single  bishop,  but 
embraced  in  their,  deliberations  the  affairs  of  the  Church  at 
large  ;  and  the  establishment  of  the  episcopate  throughout  the 
Church  may  well  have  engaged  their  attention. 

Of  this  conjecture  confirmation  is  found  in  a  fragment  of 
Irenaeus,  in  which  are  these  words  :  **  They  who  have  paid 
attention  to  the  second  ordinances  of  the  apostles  know  that  the 
Lord  appointed  a  new  offering  in  the  new  covenant."  These 
**  second  ordinances  "  must  mean  some  appointments  of  later 
date  than  those  recorded  in  the  New  Testament ;  and  these 
would  naturally  be  framed  and  promulgated  by  such  a  council 
as  Eusebius  names. 

To  the  same  effect  is  the  well-known  statement  of  Clement 
of  Rome,  that  the  apostles,  having  appointed  elders  in  every 
church,  and  foreseeing  the  disputes  that  would  arise,  "  after- 
wards added  a  codicil,  or  supplementary  direction,  that  if  they 
(the  apostles)  should  fall  asleep,  other  approved  men  should 
succeed  to  their  office,  i.  e.,  the  apostolate."  This  is  a  distinct 
witness  to  the  apostolic  institution  of  the  episcopate,  as  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  apostolate;  while  in  the  word  "afterwards  "  is 
contained  an  allusion  to  the  second  apostolic  council,  to  which 
the  "second  ordinances"  of  Irenaeus  also  refer. 

The  conclusion  which  these  notices  seems  to  justify  is  this  : 
"  That  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  a  council  of  the  apostles  and 
first  teachers  of  the  gospel  was  held  to  deliberate  on  the  crisis, 
and  to  frame  measures  for  the  well-being  of  the  Church.  The 
centre  of  the  system  then  organized  was  episcopacy,  which  at 
once  secured  the  harmonious  working  of  each  individual  con- 


stahl's  theory.  373 

gregation,  and,  as  a  link  of  communication  between  separate 
brotherhoods,  formed  the  whole  into  one  undivided  Catholic 
Church.  Recommended  by  this  high  authority,  the  new  con- 
stitution was  immediately  and  generally  adopted." 

As  a  new  defence  of  the  episcopal  scheme  of  polity  put 
forth  by  a  non-episcopalian,  this  theory  is  entitled  to  more 
consideration  than  it  seems  to  have  received  at  the  hands  of 
Episcopalians.  "  Its  intrinsic  value,"  as  Dr.  Lightfoot  remarks, 
''seems  to  have  been  unduly  depreciated;  for,  if  it  fails  to  give 
a  satisfactory  solution,  it  has  at  least  the  merit  of  stating  the 
conditions  of  the  problem  with  great  distinctness,  and  of  point- 
ing out  the  direction  to  be  followed."  {Philippiaus,  p.  202.) 

In  direct  antagonism  to  Rothe's  theory  of  the  Church  is 
that  of  another  school  in  Germany,  represented  by  Dr.  Stahl, 
its  ablest  living  advocate.  (Philos.  dcs  Rcchts,  ii.  2,  408.)  Ac- 
cording to  this  theory,  which  is  essentially  a  reac- 
tion toward  mediaevalism,  the  Church  is  not  the  \}^^q^ 
collective  whole  of  Christian  societies,  but  tlie 
objective  institution,  in  distinction  from  its  members,  which 
maintains  the  word  of  God,  the  sacra'ments,  divine  supremacy, 
divinely  appointed  offices,  previous  witnesses  of  the  faith,  the 
historical  order  of  government,  etc.  The  Church,  as  an  institu- 
tion, stands  above  the  collective  congregations  or  aggregate 
of  Christian  communions.  This  definition  of  the  Church  has 
more  recently  been  adopted,  in  substance,  by  Kliefoth,  who 
names  the  Church  an  institution  of  salvation;  a  living  organism, 
of  which  the  several  constituent  members  are  institutes,  offices, 
and  orders,  regulated  by  church-laws,  and  composing  church- 
governrnent  and  a  governed  church. 

"  It  is  a  noteworthy  peculiarity  of  the  neo-Lutheran  confes-  ^^ 
sionalism,  that,  with  few  exceptions,  it  insists  upon  tJie  restora- 
tion  of  the  Church,  meaning,  by  that  expression,  the  restora- 
tion of  external  ordinances,  offices,  and  ceremonies.  Lohe  and 
Delitsch  stand  with  Scheibel  in  opposing  the  Plan  of  Union 
on  the  ground  of  its  involving  the  subversion  of  the  Lutheran 
CJinrcJi.  Luther,  they  insist,  appeared  as  the  founder  of  A 
CHURCH.    Lohe  aims  to  prove  that  the  Lutheran  Church  is  the 


374         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

true  Church ;  that  is,  the  queen  among  the  Churches,  the 
Church  xar'  i^ox^v,  the  Bride  of  the  Lord,  the  depositary  of 
saving  grace.  {Drei  BYichcr  von  dcr  Kiirhe')  Kahnis  calls  the 
Lutheran  Church  "the  Mother  of  the  Faith,"  or  "the  Church 
of  the  Truth ; "  and,  in  his  conception  of  the  Church,  seems 
to  stand  not  far  from  that  of  Rome,  avowing,  as  he  does,  his 
belief,  that  whenever  in  our  day  a  Romish  institution  falls,  a 
constituent  part  of  Christianity  falls  with  it ;  a  view  which  he 
certainly  did  not  derive  from  Luther.  Pastor  Wolff,  in  his 
Luthfran  Answer  to  the  Memorial  of  the  Theological  Faculty  of 
Gottijigen,  expresses  himself  in  favor  of  a  *  subordination ' 
among  the  Lutheran  '  Mother- churches,'  and  of  'a  blind 
faith '  in  authority.  So  also  Hengstenberg  speaks  of  the 
'  divine  institution  of  government  in  the  Church ; '  and  Vil- 
MAR  has  declared  his  return  to  the  Romish  idea  of  the  Church, 
in  expressly  repudiating,  as  he  has  done,  the  conception  of 
the  Church  as  a  communion  '  which  is  ever  something  sub- 
jective, and  the  result  of  the  gift  of  assurance  imparted  by 
Christ,'  and  advancing  to  the  idea  of  an  institution,  as  the 
objective  originating  the  communion.  Vilmar  is  of  the  opinion 
that  in  addition  'to  the  two  necessary  means  of  grace  — pure 
doctrine  and  the  sacrament  —  a  third,  including  both  of  these, 
is  not  less  necessary:  the  maintenance  of  pure  doctrine  and 
the  right  sacrament ;  that  is  to  say,  ordinances  and  an  institu- 
tion must  be  added,  by  means  of  which  such  a  maintenance 
may  be  secured  with  the  fullest  certainty.  Of  this  *  third 
necessary  means  of  salvation '  —  the  Church  as  an  institu- 
tion—  Munchmeyer  has  recently  treated  in  the  most  thorough 
manner.  While  Vilmar,  in  advocating  his  idea  of  the  Church, 
professes  to  plant  himself  upon  the  Augsburg  Confession, 
Miinchmeyer,  with  remarkable  candor,  acknowledges  that  the 
old  Lutheran  conception  of  the  Church  does  not  harmonize 
with  the  neo-Lutheran,  or,  as  he  expresses  it,  '  that  it  con- 
tains the  remains,  not  yet  fully  eliminated,  of  the  false  spiritu- 
alism which  developed  itself  among  the  Reformed.'  (See  No. 
844.)  According  to  Miinchmeyer,  the  Church,  in  its  essence, 
consists  of  all  the  baptized ;  all  the  baptized  form  the  body  of 


SCHLEIERMACHER   S    THEORY.  375 

Christ,  and  arc  real  members  thereof;  hence,  the  ungodly  also 

belong  to  it,  yea,  even  the  baptized  'children  of  the  devil' 

The  Church  is  accordingly  defined  as   'the  spiritual  mother 

who,   through  holy  baptism^  bears    spiritual    children    to    the 

Lord.'     It  is,  therefore,  "altogether  wrong  and  misleading  to 

speak  of  an  invisible  Church  :  there  is  only  a  visible  Church 

of  the  baptized. 

"The  tendency  is  now  apparently  strong  in  certain  quarters 

to  subvert   or  break   through  the  conception  of  the  Church 

maintained  by  the  Reformers,  and  transform  the  Church  from  a 

communion  of  faith  into  an  institution  for  preaching 

and  administering  the  sacraments.     But  this  view         ^      '^' 

Lutheran 
has  by  no  means  met  with  general  acceptance,  nor       theory. 

is  it  indeed  in  agreement  with  the  spirit  of  Pro- 
testantism.    It  rests  fundamentally  upon  the  same  grounds  as 
Anglican  Puseyism,  with  this  exception,  that  the  latter  has  in 
its  favor  Church-tradition,  and,  to  some  extent,  the 

Ancrlican    Confessional    books  ;    while    the    neo-     .  ^  ' 

^  ,  of  Puseyism. 

Lutheran  conception  of  the  Church  stands  in 
avowed  contradiction  alike  to  the  symbols  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  and  the  views  of  the  Lutheran  Reformers :  a  point 
clearly  demonstrated  by  Hofling  in  his  work  on  the  Principles 
of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  -  constitution.  [No.  837.] 
The  neo-Lutheran  theory  is  essentially  one  with  the  Romish, 
and,  practically  carried  out,  would  lead  to  the  restoration  of 
a  new  visible  head  of  the  collective  Church-body  —  a  new  Pope 
in  some  form  or  other,  whether  resident  in  Rome  or  Mecklen- 
burg were  a  matter  of  the  utmost  indifference. 

"On  the  whole,  evangelical  Protestantism,"  Schenkel  thinks, 
"  has  nothing  to  fear  from  this  Romeward  tendency.  The 
utmost  it  can  effect  will  be  to  awaken  the  friends  of  Protestant 
Christianity  to  greater  vigilance  in  opposition  to  innovations 
which  would  destroy  the  essence  of  Protestantism." 

A  third  view  of  the  nature  of  the  Church,  ob-      Schleier- 
taining  in  Germany,  is  that  of  Schleiermacher.      macher's 
"  It    is    essentially    that    of    the     Reformation ;       theory, 
that    the    Church    takes    its    origin    from   the    disposition    in 


3/6  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

the  regenerate  to  form  a  communion,  and  develops  itself 
in  its  external  form  by  the  union  of  regenerate  persons  for 
systematic  action  upon  and  with  one  another.  Since,  how- 
ever, regeneration  is  not  a  sudden  transformation,  an  active 
resistance  of  the  flesh  against  the  Spirit  remaining  even  in  the 
regenerate,  there  is  always  in  those  who,  collectively,  form 
the  Church,  something  belonging  to  the  world.  Hence, 
where  the  Church  is,  that  is,  faith  and  communion  of  faith, 
there  is  also  the  world,  that  is,  sin,  and  communion  with  the 
general  sinfulness.  Here  Schleiermacher  finds  the  distinction 
between  a  visible  and  invisible  Church.  The  invisible  Church 
is  not  properly  the  collective  whole  of  all  the  regenerate,  but 
the  collective  whole  of  all  operations  of  the  Spirit  in  their 
/^'due  connection.  The  visible  Church  is  not  the  collective 
whole  of  all  the  baptized,  but  the  collective  whole  of  all 
operations  of  the  Spirit  in  their  connection  with  counterwork- 
ings  in  all  the  regenerate  arising  from  participation  in  the 
general  sinfulness. 

"  Schleiermacher  thus  modifies  the  usual  Protestant  concep- 
tion of  the  Church,  according  to  which,  as  he  remarks,  what 
is  called  the  invisible  Church  is  for  the  most  part  not  invisible, 
and  what  is  called  the  visible  is  miostly  not  Church.  The 
pure  Church  cannot,  in  his  view,  be  made  visible.  It  is  every- 
where essentially  one,  while  the  visible  Church  is  always 
apparent  in  a  state  of  separation  and  division.  He  describes 
the  invisible  Church  as  the  common  effort  of  all  Christians, 
through  the  external,  to  attain  to  the  knowledge  and  commu- 
nion of  the  same  Spirit;  while  the  particular  confessions, 
formularies,  rituals,  belong  to  the  sphere  of  the  visible  Church, 
and  form  its  separating  element.  Hence  there  is  a  plurality 
of  visible  churches  in  distinction  from  the  undivided  unity  of 
the  invisible.  But  every  part  of  the  visible  is  nevertheless  a 
part  of  the  invisible ;  that  which  unites  the  two  is  the  Spirit, 
that  which  separates  is  the  carnal  mind ;  so  that  by  virtue  of 
the  tendency  of  the  spiritual  principle  to  form  a  communion, 
there  must  needs  arise  a  never-ceasing  struggle  to  realize  a 
reunion  of  the  separated  visible  churches.     Hence  all  divisions 


y 


SCHLEIERMACHER   S    THEORY.  37/ 

in  the  Christian  Church  are  only  transient,  and  every  Chris- 
tian should  love  the  particular  form  of  Christianity  to  which 
he  belongs  only  as  a  perishable  form,  but  at  the  same  time  as 
a  form  of  the  one  imperishable  Church,  comprising  in  itself 
his  own  temporal  existence.  Schleiermacher  does  not,  accord- 
ingly, rest  satisfied  with  the  symbolical  definition,  according 
to  which  the  Church  is  always  one  conunnnion,  partly  of  regen- 
erate, partly  of  baptized  persons.  With  him  the  Church  is  a 
system  of  spiritual  and  moral  operations,  a  sum  of  states  of  life 
which  arise  either  within  (invisible  Church)  or  without  (visible 
Church).  According  to  this  description  it  is  exceedingly  diffi- 
cult to  see  how  the  organization  of  the  Church  is  to  be  effected, 
for  we  can  conceive  how  persons,  but  not  how  states  or  condi- 
tions can  organize  themselves.  How  the  organized  Christian 
community  comes  into  existence,  on  his  fundamental  principle, 
Schleiermacher  has  nowhere  shown ;  he  only  presupposes 
its  existence  as  matter  of  experience.  {Pmktische  TJieologie 
pp.  521,  sq}j  He  moreover  broached  the  question  whether  a 
Church  organization  according  to  evangelical  principles  be  the 
best  absolutely ;  and  answered  it  thus :  The  more  free  the 
process  of  Church-formation  is,  and  the  less  disturbed  by 
foreign  influences,  the  more  perfect  it  must  be;  and  every 
organization  which  most  clearly  brings  out  the  fact  that  there 
is  no  other  difference  among  evangelical  Christians  than  that 
of  the  delegated  d\^z\v2iXg^  of  certain  functions  is  the  best.  He 
accordingly  declares  himself  equally  opposed  to  a  State  Church, 
and  a  spiritual  office-CJmrch,  (one  governed  exclusively  by  the 
clergy,)  and  everywhere  manifests  a  decided  predilection  for  a 
free  ClmrcJi-constitution.  He  agrees  with  Rothe  in  the  posi- 
tion that  the  most  perfect  condition  for  the  State  is  that  in 
which  it  feels  itself  to  be  perfectly  secure  through  the  prevail- 
ing power  of  intellectual  motives,  and  thus  doing  away  with 
the  necessity  of  piety. 

"  If  Schleiermacher  has  nowhere  systematically  developed 
his  doctrine  of  the  Church  as  fully  as  could  be  desired,  he  has 
yet  contributed  to  open  the  way  so  far  as  to  reassert,  with 
great  {ox  qq,  first,  the  self -subsistence  of  tJie  Chnrch,  and  its  inde- 


J 


3/8  THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

pendence  of  the  State ;  and,  secondly,  the  tinity  of  the  Chtirck- 
forming  Christian  spirit  in  opposition  to  division  into  particu- 
lar churches. 

**  His  agreement  with  Rothe  is  therefore  only  apparent ;  in 
reality  he  pursues  an  altogether  different  path.  His  aim  is 
not  the  resolution  of  the  Church  into  the  State  and  the  reduc- 
tion of  piety  to  morality,  but  the  free  co-existence,  without  con- 
fusion, of  the  Church  and  the  State,  of  the  society  organized 
for  the  development  of  piety,  and  that  designed  for  the  realiza- 
tion of  morality.  His  conception  of  the  Church  may  indeed 
be  called  spiritualistic,  inasmuch  as  his  Church  does  not 
properly  consist  of  persons ;  but  the  materialistic  conception 
which  includes  ungodly  persons  as  real  members  of  the  body 
of  Christ,  he  not  without  reason,  and  clearly  not  without  Pro- 
testant grounds,  opposes,  but  by  rather  overstraining  the  Pro- 
testant principle.  This  overstraining  may  be  attended  with 
danger,  and,  carried  to  extreme,  (to  which,  however,  Schleier- 
macher  never  went,)  even  dissolve  all  Church  order ;  but  it  is 
far  less  pernicious  in  its  effects  than  its  opposite,  the  crystal- 
lizing of  the  Spirit  in  the  form  of  Church  organization ;  less 
dans^erous  than  the  error  of  making:  the  Church,  to  use  the 
striking  words  of  Nitsch,  '  begin  to  search  in  the  multitude  of 
its  members  after  its  essence  in  the  phenomenal  form ;  and 
not  only  assumes  the  outward  form  for  the  essence,  but  exalts 
a  hierurgic  sacrament  borrowed  from  heathenism  above  the 
Word,  a  changing  Church  order  into  a  law  of  God.' 

"  More  recent  theologians  have  attempted  to  develop  and 

describe,  on  Schleiermacher's  principles,  the  idea  and  nature 

of  the  Church.     In  general  it  may  be  said  that  his  two  leading 

ideas    respectingr   the    independence    and    higher 
Recent  .  ^    i,,  ^"^  .    ^  -  ,  .      , 

views  unity  of  Church  communion  are  found  to  be  ever 
more  and  more  in  harmony  with  each  other,  and 
that  the  need  of  realizing  that  independence  in  a  free  organ- 
ization, that  unity  in  the  union  of  the  different  churches,  is 
making  itself  more  and  more  felt.  Even  theologians  who, 
like  Hase,  incline  to  rationalism,  acknov/lcdge  that  the 
Church  is  'a  divine  institution  transcendincr  all  human  will,' 


RECENT    VIEWS.  3/9 

(Ev.  Dogmatik)  and  De  Wette  regards  the  Church  as  the  de- 
positary of  all  the  fulness  of  Christ  in  the  collective  commu- 
nion of  all  individual  Christians.  (^Das  Wesen  dcs  CJiristl.  Glan- 
bcns,  p.  406,  sq}j  Reformed  theologians  down  to  the- most 
recent  times  have  particularly  insisted  upon  this  point,  to  place 
the  idea  of  the  Church  and  that  which  is  invisible  in  it  above 
the  outward  and  visible ;  while  it  appears  to  us  less  Reformed 
to  define  the  Church,  with  Ebravd,  as  "the  communion  of  the 
means  of  grace;  since  communion  with  Christ,  by  which  Church- 
membership  is  determined,  does  not,  on  Reformed  principles, 
require  as  absolutely  necessary  the  use  of  the  means  of  grace." 
Martensen's  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  Church  is  of  a  more 
mystical  character,  beholding  in  it,  as  he  does,  **  a  living  organism 
of  revelation  and  redemption."  On  the  other  hand,  Lange,  not  ^ 
without  justice,  remarks  that  the  Church  is  not  yet  formed  on 
Protestant  principles,  and  his  expressed  expectation  of  a  future 
more  complete  formation  of  the  evangelical  Church  is  far  from 
meriting  the  scorn  which  theologians  of  the  past  have  heaped 
upon  him  as  a  theologian  of  the  future.  We  may  dissent  on 
particular  points  from  the  propositions  of  Bunsen,  in  his  work 
on  "the  constitution  of  the  Church  of  the  future;"  but  so  deeply 
rooted  is  the  need. of  a  renovation  and  regeneration  in  the 
Church,  that  even  the  restorative  theology,  as  we  have  seen, 
thinks  itself  competent,  in  this  point,  not  merely  to  restore  ;  and 
then  forsooth  recedes,  in  its  views  of  the  Church,  some  centuries 
behind  the  Reformation.  Bunsen  has  shown  in  the  work  re- 
ferred to  that  the  time  for  Clergy-churches  and  State-churches 
is  gone  by.  He  has  again  recognized",  in  its  full  scope,  the 
primitive  Christian  idea  of  the  universal  priesthood,  which 
even  the  Reformers  did  not  consistently  carry  out ;  and  if  the 
evangelical  Church  of  Germany,  when  he  wrote  his  book, 
accorded  him  its  cordial  approbation,  yet,  since  that  time, 
many  changes  have  occurred.  The  dead,  alas !  have  buried 
the  living,  and  called  forth  the  dead  out  of  their  graves.  But 
still  abundant  means  are  at  hand  "  for  maintaining  and 
strengthening  faith  in  that  world-transforming  power  which 
even  yet  survives  in  the  German  people,  faith  in  it,  too,  as  a 


380         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

sure  pledge  and  promise  of  a  fair  and  glorious  future  for  the 
evangelical  Church  of  the  Fatherland." 

I  cannot  better  conclude  this  sketch  than  in  the  words  of 
the  same  writer,  penned  while  he  was  yet  in  full  sympathy' 
with  the  spirit  of  Evangelical  Protestantism,  (1857.) 

•' The -biblical  and  apostolic  conception  of  the  Church  has 
been  apprehended  by  Protestantism  with  essential  conformity 
to  truth,  and  any  change  in  this  Protestant  conception  must 
needs  involve  the  obscuration  and  disfigurement  of  the  essence 
of  Protestantism  itself.  The  Church,  in  its  essence,  is  a  coin- 
immion  of  the  regenerate ^  and  every  believer,  but  none  other 
than  he,  has,  in  virtue  of  faith  and  regeneration,  memberslnp 
in  the  CJmrch.  Even  in  this  most  strict  and  proper  sense  of 
the  word  the  Church  is  a  communion  ;  it  is  a  definite  number! 
of  persons  who  belong  to  it.  Who  these  are  is  known  only 
to  God.  This  Church  is  invisible,  not  in  the  sense  that  its  j 
members  are  invisible,  or  that  its  corporate  acts  and  opera- 1 
tions  are  not  to  be  perceived,  but' in  the  sense  that  its  members 
are  not  to  be  discerned  with  certainty  by  human  observation, 
are  not  to  be  united  as  an  organism  under  an  external  'consti- 
tution. But  this  does  not  prevent  the  Church,  cis  existing  in 
truth  and  reality,  from  exerting  its  full  influence  on  the  unbe- 
lieving and  unregenerate.  It  is  rather,  and  most  properly,  salt 
scattered  through  the  mass  of  living  men,  and  the  divine  light 
shining  upon  it.  In  this  Church  Protestantism  believes,  as  in 
the  reality  of  the  humanity  newly  created  by  Christ,  and  on 
this  rests  its  hope.  Humanity  would  have  been  wasted  and 
destroyed  in  corruption  and  utter  wantonness,  if  the  Church 
of  the  regenerate  were  not  operating  in  it  as  the  preserving, 
purifying,  animating,  and  regenerating  principle.  Still,  the 
Church,  although  the  one,  world-embracing,  hallowed,  true, 
genuinely  apostolic  Church,  is  not  yet  perfect  and  unerring ; 
it  cannot  claim  infallibility.  It  is  rather  undergoing  a  process 
of  growth  toward  perfection,  to  continue  until  the  coming  of 
the  Lord  to  set  it  forever  free  from  the  conflict  with  the  world, 
sin,  and  death.  From  this  one  Church,  whose  members  are 
scattered  through  the  whole  world,  and  not  of  absolute  neces- 


CONCLUSION.  381 

sity  required  to  be  embraced  in  the  outward  communion  of 
Christendom,  we  justly  distinguish  the  several  ecclesiastical 
societies,  organized  under  their  respective  constitutions,  and 
composed  of  a  definite  number  of  the  baptized.  Of  these 
societies  the  members,  as  baptized,  ought  also  to  be  regener- 
ate ;  but  that  they  all  are  so,  is  not  only  incapable  of  proof, 
but  experience  proves  the  contrary.  The  particular  churches 
in  different  countries  are  not,  therefore,  to  be  regarded  as,  of 
course,  fragmentary  component  parts  of  the  one  true  Church. 
We  may  well  presume  that  they  contain  members  of  the  true 
Church ;  and  it  should  therefore  be  a  leading  aim  to  commit 
to  these,  wherever  possible,  the  guidance  of  the  Church- life. 
There  is  no  order  prescribed  by  the  Lord  in  which  this  may 
best  be  done ;  the  Spirit  of  truth  and  the  power  of  the  Word 
must  here  purge  the  threshing-floor.  Thus  much  only  is  cer- 
tain, that  the  churchly  spirit  is  not  transmitted  in  any  official 
way,  (for  example,  by  ordination  ;)  for  it  is  from  ordained  offi- 
cial persons  that  the  divisions  in  the  Church  have,  for  the 
most  part,  proceeded.  The  Spirit  of  Christ  rests,  not  on  per- 
sons of  a  particular  order,  but  upon  the  ivhole  Church;  and 
Protestantism  can,  therefore,  rightly  develop  itself  in  harmony 
with  its  conception  of  the  Church,  only  when  it  establishes 
its  Church-constitution  on  the  basis  of  a  well-organized  con- 
gregational life.  Its  aim  in  the  sphere  of  Church-organization 
must  be  to  form  the  particular  churches  into  the  one  true  ChurcJi, 
to  transform  the  Church  of  the  baptized  int^o  the  Church  of 
the  faithful."  * 

In  the  briefest  review  of  the  ground  over  which  we  have 
rapidly  passed  in  the  foregoing  pages,  we  cannot  fail  to  take 
note,  first  of  all,  of  the  early  development  of  a  tendency,  on 
the  part  of  the  Christian  teachers  of  the  post-apos-    ^     ,    . 

, .  .    1  •     •  •  r    \      r^\  \       Conclusion. 

tone  age,  to  materialistic  conceptions  of  the  Church 
and  ministry,  in  strongly  marked    contrast  with  the   purely 
spiritual  tone  of  the  apostolic  teaching.     While  the  inspired 
writers  lay  almost  exclusive  stress  upon  the  inward  connec- 

.*Hertzog,  Real-Encyklop'jdie ,  vii.,  ss.  592-9. 


382        THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

tion  of  the  individual  believer  with  Christ,  and,  in  Him,  with 
all  his  mystical  members,  living  and  departed,  forming  col- 
lectively the  one  Body  of  Christ,  the  fathers  of  the  second 
and  the  next  succeeding  century  give  special  prominence  to 
the  maintenance  of  union  with  the  regularly  organized  visible 
Christian  community,  out  of  which,  as  they  affirm,  there  is  no 
salvation.  The  apostolic  formula  —  the  forgiveness  of  sins 
and  eternal  life  through  faith  in  the  name  of  Jesus  —  is  now 
replaced  by  the  patristic  formula — *'the  remission  of  sins  and 
eternal  life  through  the  Holy  Church."  {Cypr.  Ep.  Ixxvi.  6.) 

The  transition  from  this  first  form  of  departure  from  the 
simplicity  of  the  apostolic  teaching  to  the  second  was  easy, 
as  it  was  inevitable.  The  ministerial  function,  as  exercised 
by  the  apostles  and  their  immediate  successors,  is  confessedly, 
by  eminence,  the  prophetical  function.  The  Christian  min- 
ister, of  whatever  order  or  degree,  is,  in  the  language  of  the 
New  Testament,  a  minister  of  the  Word,  a  preacher  of  the 
gospel,  a  herald  of  the  message  of  reconciliation,  a  teacher  of 
the  truth  as  embodied  in  the  person  and  work  of  the  Son  of 
God  incarnate.  With  the  writers  of  the  succeeding  ages  this 
function  of  the  ministry  comes  more  and  more  into  practical 
subordination  to  the  ministration  of  the  sacred  rites.  In  other 
words,  the  prophetical  character  of  the  ministerial  office  be- 
comes more  and  more  merged  in  the  sacerdotal.  The  sym- 
bols of  doctrine  rather  than  the  truths  they  represent  are  held 
up  as  possessing  a  life-giving  efficacy.  Upon  a  due  reception 
of  the  material  elements  is  made  to  depend  the  attainment  of 
eternal  blessedness,  and  due  reception  is  conditioned  by  the 
priestly  character  of  the  administrator.  "  Not  to  be  washed 
in  the  laver  of  regeneration,  not  to  eat  of  the  divine  flesh,  not 
to  drink  the  blood,  not  to  be  anointed  with  the  oil  of  remis- 
sion, were  to  perish  everlastingly."  The  question  of  a  man's 
salvation  or  perdition  is  made  to  turn  not  so  much  upon  his 
possession  or  non-possession  of  the  graces  of  the  Spirit,  as 
upon  his  participation  or  non-participation  of  that  which  the 
priest  may  bestow  or  may  withhold.  Such  was  the  early 
development  of  that  form  of  deviation  from  the  apostolic  doc- 


CONCLUSION.  383 

trine  which  proved  the  prime  source  of  the  manifold  corrup- 
tions in  doctrine  and  discipHne  which  subsequently  overspread 
the  Church. 

Side  by  side  with  the  development  of  the  sacerdotal  system 
was  that  of  the  theory  of  the  organic  unity  of  the  Church 
visible  as  realized  in  the  one  undivided  episcopate  ;  a  theory 
which  rapidly  advanced  to  its  logical  culmination  in  the 
Papacy.  According  to  this  theory,  as  we  have  seen,  not  only 
is  each  particular  church  organically  one  in  its  supreme  pas- 
toral head,  the  person  of  the  presiding  bishop  —  the  only  form 
of  visible  Church-unity,  properly  so  called,  claiming  Scriptural 
warrant — but  the  universal  Church  is,  in  like  manner,  one, 
an  organized  totality,  in  the  collective  episcopate ;  an  abstract 
conception  which  soon  assumed  a  concrete  form  in  a  bishop 
of  bishops,  or  cecumenical  patriarch,  in  whose  person  the 
supreme  episcopate  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles  is  perpetuated. 

In  the  light  of  these  facts,  Luther's  memorable  declaration, 
"  The  great  question  between  the  Papists  and  us  is  the  ques- 
tion concerning  the  Church — which  is  the  true  Church?" 
stands  fully  vindicated.  That  this  is  indeed  the  fundamental 
question  between  the  Romanist  and  the  Protestant,  sufficiently 
appears  from  the  tenor  of  their  respective  answers. 

The  answer  of  the  Romanist  is,  that  the  true  Church,  the 
Catholic  Church  militant,  is  that  world-wide  organization 
which  has  its  centre  of  unity  in  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  in 
the  apostolical  see  of  Rome ;  that  upon  connection  with  this 
visible  corporation  depends  the  spiritual  relation  of  the  mem- 
bers of  Christ's  mystical  members  to  the  Head ;  that  only 
through  the  mediation  of  this  body,  as  represented  by  its 
priesthood,  the  sole  dispensers  of  its  sacred  mysteries,  is  liv- 
ing union  with  Christ  secured  and  maintained. 

The  Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century,  disregarding  the 
tradition  of  centuries,  and  going  back  to  the  original  tradition 
of  the  apostles,  as  preserved  in  the  New  Testament,  give  an 
answer  to  the  question  —  What  is  the  Church? —  in  the  well- 
known  definitions  embodied  in  the  first  Protestant  Confes- 
sions: The  Church  of  Christ  is  the  community  of  the  children 


384         THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

of  God,  the  collective  body  of  the  truly  faithful  —  a  body 
which,  as  an  organized  whole,  must  needs  be  invisible,  even  as 
its  glorified  Head  is  invisible;  but  which  yet  possesses  a  real, 
though  imperfect  visibility  in  the  form  of  particular  churches, 
which  are  severally  distinguished  by  the  notes  of  a  true 
Church,  and  are  thus  identified  as  forming  constituent  parts 
of  the  one  body  of  Christ  in  its  earthly  essence. 

Between  these  two  doctrines  of  the  Church,  the  mediaeval 
or  Roman,  and  the  evangelical  or  Protestant,  there  is  no  ten- 
able middle  ground.  This  is  the  great  lesson  of  our  his- 
tory. One  or  the  other  of  these  two  positions  must  be  main- 
tained :  Either  the  Church  Catholic  is  one  and  the  same  with 
the  collective  whole  of  the  churches  of  the  Roman  obedience, 
exemplifying,  as  it  does,  in  completeness,  the  theory  of  a  vis- 
ible organic  unity,  **  Catholic  unity,"  as  its  advocates  claim,  or 
the  visible  Church  Catholic,  so  called,  is  one  and  the  same 
with  the  collective  whole  of  the  particular  churches  which 
severally  confess  the  faith  of  Christ  crucified ;  a  collective 
whole  presumptively  identified  with  the  mystical  body  of 
Christ,  visibly  one  considered  as  the  aggregation  of  all  par- 
ticular churches,  each  maintaining  in  its  purity  the  Faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints. 


LITERATURE 


OF   THE 

DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH; 

OR,  A 

CATALOGUE  OF  WORKS  RELATING  TO  THE  SUBJECT. 

THE  TITLES  ARRANGED  CHRONOLOGICALLY,  WITH  NOTES,  AND  AN 
INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


lOO.  I.  S.  S,  Pafrunif  qui  temporibus  apostolicis  floruerunt,  Opera.     Ed. 

J.  B.  Cotelerius.    Paris,  1672.     Recud.  curavit  J.  Clericus.  .  Ed.  2,  Amstelod. 
1724.  2  vols.  fol.     This  edition  contains  Pearson's  Vindicioe  Ignatiame. 

2.  Clenienfls  Horn,,  S,  If/nafilf  S.  I*olffcarpi,  Patrum  Apostol. 
quae  supersunt,  etc.  Ed.  Guil.  Jacobson.  2  torn.  8vo.  Oxon.  1838.  Ed.  4, 
1863. 

3.  S,  Cletnent  of  Rome:  The  Two  P^pistles  to  the  Corinthians.  A 
revised  text,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  J.  B.  Li^htfoot,  D.D.  Svo. 
Lond.  and  Camb.    1869. 

Of  the  Epist/es  flflG-SATius  the  longer  Greek  recension  was  first  published 
by  FaccBus,  in  1557,  then  by  Gessner,  in  1559.  Of  the  shorter  Greek  recen- 
sion, the  earliest  edition  is  that  of  Abp.  Usher,  4to.  Oxon.  1644. 

250.  4.  CupriatiuSf  Thascius  Qecilius :  Ue  Unitate  Ecclesiae.  Ed.  Fell, 
Oxon.  1681.  Ed.  Krabinger,  1853.  Opera.  Ed.  Goldhom,  l2mo.  Lips. 
1838.  Pars  IT.,  pp.  1 17-134.  Earliest  edition,  that  of  Erasmus,  Basil.  1521. 
See  Gess  :  Die  Einheit  der  Kirche  im  Sinne  Cyprians,  [No.  819 ;]  Huther  : 
Cyprians  Lehre,  etc.,  [No.  820;]  and  J.  W.  Nevin  :  Four  Articles  in  the 
Mercersbtirg  Reinew,  1 852.  [No.  761.] 

5-  Epistolce  —  xlii.,  liii,,  Iv.,  Ixiv.,  Ixvi.,  Ixvii.,  Ixix.,  Ixxiv.,  Ixxvi. 

280.  6.   ConstiUltioneH  Apostolicai.     Ed.  Guil.  Ucltzen.  Rostock.  1S53. 

Eng.  transl.  by  Chase.    8vo.     N.  Y.  1848. 

370  7.   Optatus  3Illevitanus:  De  Schismate  Donatistarum  Libri  sep- 

tem.     Ed.  Dupin.  Fol.  Paris.  1702. 

430.         8.  AugustinilS  AureliUH :  Epistola  ad  Catholicos  contra  Donatistas, 
25  3  385 


3S6  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

vulgo  De  Unitate  Ecclesice,  Liber  L     Opera.  Ed.  Benedict.   18  vol.  4to. 
Bassoni,  1807.     In  Vol.  xii.,  pp.  427-493. 
430        9.  Contra  Epistolam  Parmeniani,  Libri  tres.     Opera,  Vol.  xii.,  pp. 

15-103- 

10.  De  Baptismo  contra  Donatistas,  Whx'x  septem.  Ibid.,  pp.  103-265. 

1 1 ,  Contra  Litteras  Petiliani,  Donatistai,  Libri  tres.  Ibid.,  pp.  265-427. 

434.       12.    Vhicentius  Livinetisis:  Commonitorium,   Opera,  in  Vincentii 

Lirinensis  et  Hilarii  Arelatensis  Opera.     4to,     Romie,  1 731. 

450.  13.  XjCO  I.f  Papa:  Opera,  Ed.  Ballerini.  3  vols,  fol,  Venet.  1753-57. 
Vol.  I.  Epistolam, 

550.  14,  D'uniyslus  E.rif/uits:  Codex  Canonum  Ecclesiasticorum,  sive 
Codex  Canonum  vetus  Ecclesice  Romance,  ab  Hadriano  Papa  I.,  Carolo 
Magno,  Romoe  quondam  oblatus.  In  Bibliotheca  Juris  Canonici  Veteris. 
Ed,  Justel.     2  vols.  fol.     Paris,  1661.     Vol.  i.,  pp.  97-175. 

570.       15.  tfohatines  ^MftOf/teiiW.^,  Scholasticus  dictus:  Collectio  Cano- 
num.   Gr.  et  Lat.    In  Biblioth.  Jur.  Can.  Vet.  uti  sup,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  499-603. 
16.  Nomocanon.     Gr.  et  Lat.     Ibid.,  pp.  603-673. 

600,  17.  6r/'<?j70»*/»e«  Jr.,  Papa :  Opera.  Ed.  Benedict.  4  vols.  fol.  Paris, 
1705.  The  best  edition.  (Reprinted  in  17  vols.  4to.  Venet.  1768-76.) 
Vol.  ii.     Liber  Regulae  Pastoralis,  pp.  1-103. 

18.  Registrum  Epistolarum.     Id.  Ibid,,  pp,  477-1305.    The  Epistles 

are  840  in  number. 

630.  19.  Jsidorus  Hisjxileii sis :  De  Officiis  Ecclesiasticis.  Ed.  Giy- 
nreus.     Lat.     1736.     Opera.  Eol.  Col.  Ag.  161 7. 

20.  Originum,  sive  Ethymologiarum  Libri  XX,,  pp,  I-179.  In  Oj>era, 

uti  supra. 

850,  21,  Decrefales  Pseudo-Isldoriance.  First  edition  in  Decreta 
et  Concilia  Generaliain  unum  collecta  (a  Isidore  Hispalense),  edente  Mer- 
lino.  2  vols.  fol.  Paris,  1523-4.  Vol.  i.  Reprinted  in  Migne's  Patrologia 
Latina,  torn.  cxxx.     Paris.     New  edition,  2  vols,  8vo.     Leips.  1863. 

880.  22.  PhotiuSf  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  :  Nomocanon,  id  est  Canonum 
conciliatio.  Gr.  et  Lat.  In  Bibliotheca  Juris  Canonici  veteris.  Ed.  Justel. 
2  vols,  fol.  Paris,  1 661.  Vol.  ii,,  pp,  785-1140. 
1000,  23,  GerbertUS  —  afterward  Pope  Sylvester  II. :  Sermo  de  Reformatione 
Episcoporum.  Quoted  by  Gregory  VII.,  Lib.  xi.,  Ep.  ii.,  under  the  title 
of  Ambrosii  Pastorale.  It  is  found  in  editions  of  Ambrose's  Works,  enti- 
tled Liber  de  dignitate  sacerdotali.  Ambrosii  Opera.  2  vols.  fol.  Paris, 
1686-90.     Vol.  ii.     Appendix,  pp.  357-65. 

1050,  24.  L,eO  XX.,  Pope:  Epistolse  xiii.,  etc.  In  Labbe  and  Mansi :  Con- 
cilia, 23  vols.  fol.  Venet.  1728.  29  vols.  Luck,  1748-52.  Vol.  xi.,  pp. 
1317-1394. 

1074,  25.  Gregory  VII.,  Pope  :  Epistolce.  In  Sacrosancta  Concilia.  Studio 
Labbei,  Cossartii,  Coleti,  et  Mansi,  uti  supra.  Vol.  xii.,  pp.  229-537.  S. 
Gregorii  VII.  Romani  Pontificis  Epistolce  et  Diplomata  Pontificia.  8vo, 
Paris,  1853,  (Migne.) 

1 1 50.      2.6.  Gratianiis:  Concordantia  Discordantium  Canonum;  or,  Decre- 

4 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  ^i^y 

turn.  First  edition,  fol.  Strasburg.  147 1.  About  80  editions  have  appeared. 
Best  ed.,  forming  first  Part  of  Corpus  Juris  Canonici,  410,  Leips.  1833-39 
1200.  27.  Innocent  III.,  Vope:  Epistolce.  Libri  i.,ii.,  v.,  x.-xvi.,  in  Epis- 
tolarum  Innocentii  III.  Libri  undecim.  Ed.  Baluze.  Tom.  ii.  Fol.  Paris, 
16S2.  Lib.  iii.  v.-x.,  in  Diplomata,  Chartce,  Epistol^  et  alia  documenta,  ad 
res  Francicas  spectantia,  etc.  T.  i.  et  ii.  Fol.  Paris,  1 791.  Lib.  iv.,  xvii._ 
xix.,  seem  to  have  been  lost.  Nineteen  Books  are  named  —  one  for  every 
year  of  Innocent's  pontificate,  1198-1216. 
1379-  28.  Tr//e^/#iP,  e/o/m;  Dialog.  Libri  iv.  Trialogus,  Lib.  iv.  Cap.  15. 
De  Sacramento  Ordinis.     Basil,  1525. 

29-  Three  treatises  :   i.  Of  the  Church  and  her  Members.    2.  Of  the 

Apostasy  of  the  Church.     3.  Of  Antichrist,  etc.     8vo.     Dublin,  185 1. 

219  a.  Matthias  of  Janoiv :  Regulae  Veteris  et  Novi  Testament!. 
In  Historia  et  Monumenta  Jo.  Hus  atque  Huron.  Pragensis.  Norimb    171=' 
1.473. 
1400.      30.  Hnss,  John:  Tractatus  de  Ecclesia.     Opera.    2  vols.  fol.  Norib. 
155S.     Vol.  i.,  pp.  196-255. 

31-  De  Unitate  Ecclesias  et  Schismate.    Id.    Pp.  476-9. 

32.  Clewangis,  Nicolas  de  :  Disputatio  super  materia  Concilii  Gen- 
erahs.  In  Fasciculus  rerum  expeteiidarum  et  fugiendarum,  etc.  Ed,  Brown. 
2  vols.  fol.     Lond.  1690.     Vol.  i.,  pp.  393-406. 

^33-  De  corrupto  Ecclesias  statu  liber;  vel,  De  Ruina  Ecclesise.  Ibid. 

Vol.  ii.,  pp.  555-570.  Erroneously  ascribed  to  Clemangis.  Author  uncer- 
tain.     Written  in  1401. 

34-  Vota  pacis  ac  emendationis  in  Constantiensi  Concilio  qucesita. 

In  Magnum  cecumenicuni  Constantiense  Concilium  de  Universal!  Ecclesic^ 
refoi-matione,  unione,  et  fide.  Ed.  Von  der  Hardt.  7  vols.  fol.  Franc  et 
Lips.  1697,  etc.     Vol.  i.,  pp.  I,  sqq. 

35-  Opusculum  de  Ruina  Ecclesice  circa  tempora  Concilii  Constan- 

tiensis.     Ibid. 

36.   Gerson,  John:  De  Schismate.     Opera.     Vol.  ii.,  pars  i. 

37'  De  Unitate  Ecclesiastica,  etc.     Id.    lb. 

3^-  I^e  Modis  uniendi  ac  reformandi  ecclesiam  in  Concilio  univer- 

sali.  1410.     In  reply  to  D'Ailly :  De  difficultate  Reform.,  etc.  Id.  Pars  2. 

39-  De  Potestate  ecclesiastica  Considerationes.     Id.     Ibid. 

40-  Declaratio  Defectuum  virorum  ecclesiasticorum.     Id. 

41  •  De  Potestate  Ligandi  et  Solvendi.     Id.    Pars  3.    Opera.     Ed. 

Du  Pin.     5  vols.  fol.     Antw.  1706.     Vol.  ii.,  partes  1-3. 
1439-      41  a.  Joannes  de  Tm^recremata :   Summa  de  Ecclesia  et  ejus 

Auctoritate,  Libri  iv.     Lugd.  1496.     Venet.  1561. 
1450-      42.   CusamiSf  Nicholas  :  De  Concordantia  Catholica.  (9/^ra.  3  vols. 

fol.     Paris,  1 5 14;  and  Basel,  1565. 

43.  Goch,  John  of:  De  Libertate  Christiana.     Ed.  Grapheus.    Ant- 
werp.    4to.     1521. 

44.  De  quatuor  Erroribus  circa  Legem  Evangelicam  exortis  Dialogus. 

In  Walchii  Monumenta  Medii  ^vi.  Fasc.  iv.,  p.  73. 

5 


388  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

14S0.  45.  JVeself  John  of:  Disputatio  adversus  Indulgentias.  In  Walchii 
Monumenta  Medii  ^Evi.     Fascic.  i.,  pp.  ill,  sqq. 

46.  De  Auctoritate,  Officio,  et  Potestate  Pastorum  Ecclesiasticorum. 

In  Walch,  vol.  ii.  Fasc.  ii.,  pp.  115,  sqq.  This  is  otherwise  entitled,  Trac- 
tatus  de  Potestate  Ecclesiastica.  Upon  some  propositions  in  this  work,  the 
author,  at  his  trial,  underwent  an  examination.  See  Paradoxa  et  Examen 
Magistrale  ac  theologicale  D.  Jo.  de  Wesalia  —  Register  of  the  Proceedings 
against  Wesel  —  in  Orthuini  Gratii  Fascic.  Reruni  Expetendarum  et  Fugien- 
darum.  Ed.  Brown,  vol.  i.,  pp.  325-334.  Wesel  strongly  affirms  the  formal 
principle  of  Protestantism  —  the  supremacy  of  Scripture  :  "  Above  and  before 
all,  I  protest  that  I  desire  nothing,  I  assert  nothing  which  is  in  any  way 
contrary  to  the  verity  of  the  faith,  as  contained  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
Nothing  is  to  be  held  as  de  fide  which  is  not  contained  in  the  canon  of 
Scripture." 

1485.      47.    Wesself  tToJin:  De  Potestate  Ecclesiastica.      Opera,  p.  153,  sq. 

48.  Quae  sit  vera  Communio  Sanctorum.     Id.,  p.  807,  sq. 

Opera.  Ed.  Pappus.  4to.  Groning.  16 14.  Farrago  Wesseli,  containing 
several  of  his  treatises,  was  first  published  under  the  supervision  of  Luther, 
at  Wittenberg.     4to.     1521  and  1522. 

1500.  49.  ErasmuSf  Desiderius  :  De  Puritate  Ecclesias  Christiante;  enar- 
ratio  Psalmi  xiv.     Opera.     Vol.  v.,  p.  291. 

50.  De  amabili  Ecclesise  Concordia  liber.     Opera.     P.  469.    Opera. 

10  vols.  fol.  in  II.     Lugd.  Bat.  1703.     The  best  edition. 

1 5 11.  51.  Cajetan,  Thomas  de  Vlo  :  Tractatus  de  comparatione  Aucto- 
ritatis  Papa?  et  Concilii.     Venet.  1531.     Opera.     Fol.     Lyons,  1639. 

1512.  52.  A.lin(limiSf  tTacohus  :  Tractatus  de  xA.uctoritate  Ecclesise,  et  Con- 
ciliorum  Generalium.     In  Gersonii  Opera.     Ed.  Dupin,  ii.,  p.  976. 

^517-  53-  IsidoriiS  de  Isolanis  :  De  Imperio  Militantis  Ecclesioe,  Libri 
iv.     Fol.     Mediolani.  1517. 

1524.  54.  OtiU.H  JEcclesice,  Folio.  Landshut,  1524.  This  work  was  com- 
piled in  1519.   {Brunei.) 

1531-  55-  JMehdlchthofl :  Apologia  Confessionis  Augustanre.  Wittenberg, 
1531.  German  translation  by  Jonas,  Wittenb.  1531.  English  translation  in 
Book  of  Concord,  Newmarket,  Va.,  1 85 1.  Pp.  53-276.  Cap.  iv.  De  Eccle- 
sia.     Cap.  xiv.  De  Potestate  Ecclesiastica. 

1536-  5^-  Calvuif  tTohn :  Christians  Religionis  Institutio.  8vo.  Basileoe, 
1536.  Author's  last  edit.,  (in  Latin  and  French,)  1559.  Eng.  transl.  by 
Norton,  1561, 1562,  '72,'74,'8o,  '82,'87,'99,  1611,  '51, etc.;  hy  Allen,  1813; 
by  Beveridge,  Edinb.  1845-6.     Book  iv.,  chap.  1-12. 

1 549-  57-  The  Form  and  Manner  of  making  and  consecrating  of  Archbishops, 
Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons.  Lond.  1549.  Ed.  Parker  Soc.  Camb.  1844. 
Pp.  159-186. 

1557-  58-  Bacer^  Martin:  De  Regno  Christi.  Written  at  Lambeth,  1550; 
first  published  by  Oporinus,  in  1557.  "It  contains,"  says  Schenkel,  "  an 
outline  of  aChurch  constitution,  according  to  the  principles  of  the  Reformation." 

1560.      59.  JBeza,    Theodore :   Confessio  Christiance   Fidei.      Genev.  1560. 

6 


DOCTRINE     OF    THE    CHURCH.  38r) 

The  article  on  the  Church,  its  organization,  discipline,  etc.,  is  handled  with 
special  care  and  fulness. 

1562.  eo.  Jewel,  John:  Apo\osi:iEcch<xxAng\icanx.  8vo.  Lond  156- 
P.  11.,  c.  u.-vii.  Eng.  transl.:  The  Apologie  of  the  Church  of  England' 
4to.  Lond.  1562.  This  translation  is  somewhat  different  from  that  of  1564 
by  Lady  Bacxn  :  An  Apologie  or  Answere  in  defence  of  the  Churche  of  Eng- 
land, with  a  briefe  and  plaine  declaration  of  the  true  Religion  professed 
and  used  in  the  same.    8vo.    Lond.  1564. 

1564.  61.  Harding,  Thomas,  JD.D.  :  An  Answere  to  Maister  Ivelles  Cha- 
lenge.  4to.  Douay,  1564.  In  reply  to  Jewel's  celebrated  challenge  to  the 
Romanists  at  Paul's  Cross,  Nov.  26,  1559:  that  if,  with  respect  to  certain 
specified  articles,  "  any  learned  man  alive  were  able  to  prove  any  .  .  .  by  any 
one  clear  and  plain  clause  or  sentence,  either  of  the  Scriptures  or  of  the 
old  doctors,  or  of  any  old  general  council,  or  by  any  example  of  the  primi- 
tive Church  ...  for  the  space  of  six  hundred  years  after  Christ,"  he  would 
"  give  over  and  subscribe  unto  them."  A  challenge  repeated,  at  the  same 
place,  the  year  following,  with  the  addition  of  fresh  articles,  in  a  Sermon 
printed  in  i8mo,  Lond.  1560.  {^r^s  i.,  pp.  1-25.  P.  Soc.  ed  Camb 
1845-) 

1565.  62.  A  Confutation  of  a  Booke  entitled.  An  Apologie  of  the  Church 

of  England.     4to.     Antwerp,  1565. 

63.  Canones  et  Decreta.  Sacrosancti  CEcumenici  et  Generalis  Con- 
cihi  Tridentini,  sub  Paulo  IIL,  Julio  IIL,  Pio  IIIL,  P.  P.  Max.  Fol.  Rom.-e, 
1564.  (Also,  4to  and  Svo,  same  place  and  date.)  Sessio  xxiii.  De  Sacra- 
mento Ordinis. 

1566.  64.  Catechismns,  ex  decreto  Concilii  Tridentini,  ad  Parochos  Pii 
Qumti.  P.  M.  jussu  editus.  Fol.  Rom^,  1566.  Part  L,  cap.  x.,  quest, 
i.-xxv.  Part  IL,  cap.  vii.,  quest,  i.-xxxi.  Eng.  transl.  by  Buckley.  i2mo 
Lond.  1852. 

65.  Chemnitz,  Martin:  Examinis  Concilii  Tridentini,  opus  inte- 
grum, quatuor  partes,  in  quibus,  prcecipuorum  capitum  totius  doctrince  papis- 
tic.^ firma  et  solida  refutatio,  turn  ex  S.  Scripture  fontibus,  tum  ex  orthodox- 
orum  patrum  consensu  collecta  est.  Pars  IL  De  Sacramento  Ordinis,  cap. 
i.-iv.  Of  this  great  work,  Part  I.  appeared  in  1565,  Part  II.  in  1^66,'  Part 
III.  in  1572,  Part  IV.  in  1573. 

66.  Jewel:  A  Replie  unto  Mr.  Hardinges  Answeare,  entitled  a  Con- 
futation, etc.  Fol.  Lond.  1565.  A  rejoinder  by  J/ardmg.  Antw.  410. 
1566. 

1567.      67.  A  Defence  of  the  Apologie  of  the  Churche  of  Englande,  con- 

teininge  an  Answeare  to  a  certaine  Booke,  lately  set  foorth  by  M.  Hardinge 
Fol.     Lond.  1567.     Part  IL,  chap,  ii.-vii. 

68.  Hardinff:  A  Detection  of  sundry  foule  Errours,  etc.  ...  in  "  A 
Defence  of  the  Apologie,"  etc.     4to.     Louvaine,  1568. 

69.  Sanders,  Nicolas,  D,  D. ;  The  Rocke  of  the  Churche,  wherein 
the  Primacy  of  St.  Peter  and  of  his  successors,  the  Bishops  of  Rome,  is 
proved  out  of  God's  Worde.     i6mo.     Louvain,  1567. 

7 


390  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

1570.  70,  Kowellf  Alexander:  Catechismus,  sive  prima  Institutio,  Dis- 
ciplinaque  Pietatis  Christiance,  Latine  explicata.  4to,  pp.  170.  Lond.  1570, 
Eng.  transl. :  A  Catechisme,  or  first  Instruction  and  Learning  of  Christian 
Religion.     4to.     Lond.  1570. 

1 57 1.  71.  Sanders f  Nicolas:  De  visibili  Monarchia  Ecclesice,  Libri  viii. 
Fol.     Lov.  1 57 1. 

72.  Sfa]}leton,  Thomas:  Defensio  Successionis  Ecclesiasticse,  Lib.  i. 

73.  Uridf/eSf  John:  Supremacie  of  Christian  Princes  over  all  per- 
sons throughout  their  dominions,  in  all  Causes,  as  well  ecclesiastical  as  tem- 
poral. 4to,  pp.  1 1 14.  Lond.  1573.  In  answer  to  T.  Stapleton  and  Nic. 
Sanders. 

1572.  74.  Field,  John,  and  Wilcochs,  Thomas:  An  Admonition  to 
the  Parliament,  for  the  Reformation  of  Church  Discipline.    8vo.    Lond.  1 572. 

75.  Cartivrlght,  Thomas  :  A  Second  Admonition  to  the  Parlia- 
ment.    8vo,  pp.  64.     Lond.  1572. 

1573*  75  3..  Acworthf  George:  De  visibili  Rom.  anarchia,  contra  Nic. 
Sanderi  Monarchiam  llpo\tyofitvov.     Libri  duo.     4to.     Lond.  1573. 

76.  Whitgiftf  John:  An  Answer  to  a  certain  Libel  entitled  An 
Admonition  to  the  Parliament.  4to,  pp.  246.  Lond.  1572.  Second  edit, 
enlarged.     4to.     1573. 

77.  Cartivrightf  Thomas:  A  Replye  to  an  Answere  made  of  ^L 
Doctor  Whitgift  agaynst  the  Admonition  to  the  Parliament.  4to,  pp.  224. 
Black  letter.     Lond.  1573. 

1574.  78.  A.  Defence  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Regiment  in  England,  defaced  by 
T.  C.  in  his  Replie  agaynst  D.  Whitgift.  i6mo.  Lond.  1574.  Anony- 
mous —  probably  intended  as  an  introduction  to  the  elaborate  volume  next 
named. 

79.  IVJlitgiftf  John  :  The  Defense  of  the  Aunswere  to  the  Admoni- 
tion, against  the  Replie  of  T.  C.  Fol.  Pp.  800,  in  black  letter.  Lond. 
1574.     {Works.     Parker  Soc.  ed.     3  vols.    1851-3.) 

1575.  80.  Cartivrightf  Thomas:  An  Examination  of  M.  Dr.  Whitgiftes 
Censures  conteined  in  two  Tables  set  before  his  Booke,  entituled  The  Defense, 
etc.     i6mo,  pp.  53.     Lond.  1575. 

81.  The  Second  Replie  of  Thomas  Cartwright  agaynst  Maister 

Doctor  Whitgifte's  Second  Answer  touching  the  Churche  Discipline.  4to, 
pp.666,  in  black  letter,  1575.  The  jDroduction  of  a  foreign  press;  the 
author  being  now  in  exile. 

82.  The  Rest  of  the  Second  Replie  of  Thomas  Cartwright,  etc.    4to, 

pp.  265.     1577. 

83.  TraverSf  Walter:  De  Disciplina  Ecclesiastica;  otherwise  enti- 
tled Disciplina  Ecclesiae  Sacra,  ex  Dei  Verbo  Descripta.  Translated  into 
English,  and  enlarged  by  Cartwright :  A  full  and  plaine  Declaration  of 
Ecclesiastical  Discipline  out  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  of  the  declining  of 
the  Church  of  England  from  the  same.     1573.     Reprijit.  1644. 

1577.  84.  Du  Plessis  Mornay  :  Trait^  de  I'Eglise  auquel  sont  disputt^es 
les  principales  questions  qui  ont  este  moues  sur  ce  point  en  notre  temps. 

8 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  39I 

Svo.  Geneve,  1577.  Lond.  1578.  Eng.  transl.:  A  Notaljle  Treatise  of 
the  Church,  translated  by  J.  Fielde.  Svo.  Lond.  1579.  Also,  1580,  1606. 
15S1.  85.  lieUarminc,  Itohert  Frs.  Horn nius :  Disputationes  de  Cou- 
troversiis  Christiance  Fidei  adversus  hujus  temporis  hxreticos.  Vol.  I.  and 
II.,  Rome,  1581-82.     Vol.  III.,  1593.     Rome,  1832-40,  IV.  vols.  410. 

86.  BeZdf    Theodore:  Judgment  concerning  a  Threefold  Order  of 
Bishops,  etc. 

87.  De  Veris  et  Visihilibus  Ecclesia?  Catholicce  Notis.    Genev.  1579. 

Discourse  of  the  True  and  Visible  Marks  of  the  Catholic  Church,  translated 
by  Thomas  Wilcox.      i6mo.     Lond.  1582. 

88.  Fulke,   William:  A  Discourse  of  the  Dangerous  Rocke  of  the 
Popish  Churche  Commended  by  Nich.  Sanders,  D.D.     i6mo.     Lond.  1580. 

1582.  89.  Brown,  Itohert:  A  Treatise  of  Refonnation  without  tarrying  for 
any,  and  of  the  wickedness  of  those  preachers  which  will  not  reform  them- 
selves and  their  charge,  because  they  will  tarry  till  the  magistrate  command 
and  compel  them.  410.  Middelburg,  1582.  The  first  of  the  Brotonist 
publications. 

90.  RainoUU,  John:  A  Defence  of  the  English  Liturgy  against 
Robert  Brown  his  schismatical  book.      1582. 

1584.      91.  and  John  Hart:  The  Summe  of  the  Controversy  between 

John  Rainoldes  and  John  Hart :  touching  the  Head  and  Faith  of  the  Church. 
Wherein  are  handled  sundry  points,  of  the  sufficiency  and  right  expounding 
of  the  Scriptures,  the  ministry  of  the  Church,  the  function  of  priesthood^^ 
the  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  etc. ;  but  chiefly  and  purposely,  the  point  of  Church- 
government,  opened  in  the  branches  of  Christ's  supreme  sovereignty,  of 
Peter's  pretended,  the  Pope's  usurped,  the  Prince's  lawful  Supremacy.  4to. 
Lond.  1584,  '88,  '98,  1609.     Latin  transl.     Fol.     Oxon.  1616. 

92.  Fulke,Williani:  De  Successione  Ecclesiastica  et  latente  ab  Anti- 
christi  Tyrannide  Ecclesia.     i6mo.    Lond.  1584.    In  reply  to  Stapleton. 

93-  ^  Dialoane  concerning  the  Strife  of  our  Churche,  wherein  are 
answered  divers  of  those  unjust  accusations  wherewith  the  godly  preachers 
and  professors  of  the  Gospel  are  falsely  charged ;  with  a  brief  declaration 
of  some  such  monstrous  abuses  as  our  bishops  have  not  been  ashamed  to 
foster.     i6mo,  pp.  136.     Lond.  1584. 

94-  A  hriefe  and  plaine  Declaration  concerning  the  desires  of  all 
those  faithful  ministers  that  have  and  do  seek  for  the  discipline  and  reforma- 
tion of  the  Church  of  England,  etc. ;  otherwise  entitled  A  learned  Dis- 
course of  Ecclesiastical  Government.     i6mo,  pp.  148.     Lond.  1584. 

1587-  95-  Bridges  f  John:  A  Defence  of  the  Government  established  in  the 
Church  of  England.  4to,  pp.  1401.  Lond.  1587.  The  author  had  pub- 
lished, in  1573,  a  volume  entitled  The  Supremacy  of  Christian  Princes. 

96.  A.  Defence  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Discipline  ordained  of  God  to  be 
used  in  his  Church.     Lond.  1588.     In  reply  to  Bridges. 

97-  Church  Discipline  :  Part  of  a  Register  containing  sundry  mem- 
orable matters  written  by  divers  godly  and  learned  men  in  our  time,'  which 

9 


392  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

stand  for  and  desire  the  reformation  of  our  Church  in  discipline  and  cere- 
monies. 4to,  pp.  550.  Edinb.  1587. 
15S7.  98.  Ji  UeniOlistratlon  of  the  Truth  of  that  Discipline  which  Christ 
hath  prescribed  in  his  Word  for  the  Government  of  his  Church,  in  all  times 
and  places  until  the  end  of  the  world.  4to,  pp.  86;  forming  one  volume 
with  the  Church  Discipline  It  is  ascribed  to  John  Udall,  and  also  to 
John  Penry,  alias  Martin  Mar-prelate. 

99.  ^Bancroft,  Hichavd  :  A  briefe  Discoverie  of  the  Untruthes  and 
Slanders  against  the  true  Government  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  in  a  Sermon. 
Feb.  8,  1588.  Lond.  Reprinted  with  the  author's  Survey  of  the  Pretended 
Holy  Discipline,  1593;  and  in  Hickes'  Biblioth.  Script.  Eccl.  Angl.  1709. 

100.  MdhloldSf  tfohu:  Letter  to  Sir  Francis  Knollys,  concerning  some 
passages  in  Dr.  Rd.  Bancroft's  Sermon.  Lond.  1641.  Reprinted  in  Neal, 
Hist,  of  the  Puritans,  vol.  i.,  c.  vii. 

loi.  Some,  Hohert:  A  godly  Treatise  containing  and  deciding  cer- 
tain Questions  touching  the  Ministry,  Sacraments,  and  Church,  and  confuta- 
tion of  M.  Penry.     4to.     Lond.  1588. 

102.  jyi.  Some  laid  open  in  his  Coulers ;  wherein  the  indifferent  reader 
may  see  how  wretchedly  and  loosely  he  hath  handled  the  cause  against 
M,  Penri:  Done  by  an  Oxford  Man.  J.  G.     i2mo,  pp.  124. 

103.  Penri/f  tfohli:  A  Defence  of  that  which  hath  bin  written  in  the 
Questions  of  the  ignorant  Ministerie,  and  the  communicating  with  them. 
i6mo.     Lond.  1588. 

104.  Martin  Mar-prelate  :  An  Epistle  to  the  terrible  Priests  of  the 
Convocation  House,  by  Martin  Mar-prelate,  Gent.     4to.     Lond.  1588. 

105.  An  Epitome  of  the  first  book  of  Dr.  John  Bridges's  Defence  of 

the  Government  of  the  Church  of  England  in  ecclesiastical  matters.     4to, 
pp.  46,  black  letter.     Lond.  1588. 

106.  JPappe  with  an  Hatchet.  4to.  Lond.  1589.  In  reply  to  Martin 
Mar-prelate.     Ascribed  to  Lyly,  and  also  to  Nash. 

107.  Cooper,  Thomas f  Bishop  of  Winchester:  An  Admonition  to 
the  People  of  England  against  Martin  Mar-prelate.  8vo.  Lond.  1589. 
Reprinted,  8vo,  Lond.  1847. 

108.  Hay  any  Worke  for  Cooper.  4to,  pp.  58.  Lond.  1589.  In  reply 
to  the  Admonition  to  the  People  of  England. 

109.  A.n  Almond  for  a  Parrot.  4to,  pp.  28.  Lond.  1589.  Ascribed 
to  Thomas  Nash.     In  reply  to  Martin  Mar-prelate. 

1 10.  Wright,  Leonard  :  A  Friendly  Admonition  to  Martin  Mar-pre- 
late and  his  Mates.     4to.     Lond.  1590. 

no  a.  A  Countercuffe  given  to  Martin  Junior. 
1589.       III.  Erastus,   Thomas:    Explicatio  Questionis  gravissimse,  utrum 
Excommunicatio  mandato  nitatur  divino  an  excogitata  sit  ab  hominibus.  1589. 
Eng.  transl.  1669.     Reprinted,  1845. 

112.  Beza,  Theodore :  De  Presbyteris. 

113.  De  Excommunicatione.     In  reply  to  Erastus. 

114.  Saravia,  Hadrian  :  De  diversis  Ministrorum  Evangelii  gradi- 

10 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  393 

bus,  aiithore  Hadriano  Saravia,  Bclga.     4to.     Lond,   1590.     Eng.  transla- 
tion: Treatise  of  the  different  Degrees  of  the  Christian  Priesthood.     410. 
Lond.  1591.     Reprinted  at  Oxford,  1840  and  1848,  i8mo. 
[589.       114a.  Defensio  Tractatus  de  div.  Min.  Ev.grad.    4to,    Lond.  1594. 

115.  De  Imperandi  Authoritate,  et  Christianoe  Obedientii^,  Libri  iv. 

4to.     Lond.  1593. 

116.  Diversi  Tractatus  Theologian;  de  diversis  gradibus,  etc.;    de 

honore  pnesulibus  debito,  etc.,  etc.     4to.     Lond.  1641. 

117.  Treatise  of  the  honor  and  maintenance 'due  to  ecclesiastical 

persons.     8vt).     Lond.  1629. 

118.  Sntcliffef  3Iattheiv:  A  Treatise  of  Ecclesiastical  Discipline. 
4to.     Lond.  1590-91. 

119.  De  Presbyterio  ejusque  Nova  in  Ecclesia  Christiana  Politeia. 

4to,  1 59 1. 

119  a.   De    Calholica    et   Orthodoxa    Christi    Ecclesia.       Lib.    II. 

Lond.  1592. 

120.  Alison,  H.:  A  plain  Confutation  of  a  treatise  of  Brownism, 
published  by  some  of  that  faction,  entitled  a  "  True  Description  of  the  Visi- 
ble Church,"  etc.     4to.     Lond.  1590. 

121.  HdrroweSf  Henry  :  A  brief  Discovery  of  the  False  Churches; 
wherein  the  rights  of  the  Christian  Church  are  further  asserted  by  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  4to,  pp.  263.  Lond.  1590.  Reprinted,  Lond.  1707,  8vo.  From 
the  name  of  the  author,  (executed  in  1592,)  the  Brownists  were  sometimes 
denominated  Barrowists. 

122.  A  Platform  which  may  serve  as  a  preparative  to  drive  away 

Prelatism.     8vo.     Lond.  1593. 

123.  A  true  Confession  of  the  Faith,  etc.,  which  we,  falsely  called 

Brownists,  do  hold,  etc.     Lond.  1596. 

124.  tTdCOhf  Henry :  A  Defence  of  the  Churches  and  Ministry  of 
England  against  the  reasons  and  objections  of  Maister  Francis  Johnson,  and 
others  of  the  Separation,  commonly  called  Brownists.  In  two  treatises. 
4to.     Middelburg,  1599. 

125.  Reasons  taken  out  of  God's  Word  and  the  best  human  testi- 
monies, proving  a  necessity  of  reforming  our  Churches  in  England,  etc. 
1604.  Written  while  the  author  was  in  communion  with  the  Church  of 
England. 

126.  The  divine  beginning  and  institution  of  Christ's  true  visible 

and  material  Church.     Leyden,  1610. 

127.  An  Explication  and  Confirmation  of  the  above.     161 1. 

128.  Hallf  Joseph:  A  common  Apology  of  the  Church  against  the 
unjust  challenges  of  the  over-just  sect,  commonly  called  Brownists,  etc.  4to. 
Lond.  1610.  Reprinted  in  Works,  3  vols,  fob,  1647-62,  and  12  vols.  8vo, 
Oxf.  1837.  In  reply  to  a  pamphlet  entitled  An  Answer  to  a  Censorious 
Epistle,  which  is  reproduced  in  the  margin  of  this  volume,  and  answered, 
section  by  section. 

591.       129.   Coshlf  UlcJiard:    Conspiracy  for  pretended  Reformation,  viz., 

II 


394  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

Presbyterial  Discipline  ;    a  treatise   discovering  the  late  designments   and 
courses  held  for  advancement  thereof,  by  Wm.  Racket,  Edm.  Coppinger, 
and  Henry  Arthington.     4to,  Lond.  1591-2,  and  8vo,  1699. 
1 59 1.       130.  JieZitf   Theodore:  Responsio  ad  Tractationem  de  Ministrorum 
Evangelii  gradibus  ab  Hadriano  Saravia  editam.     1592. 

131.  De  diversis  Ministrorum  gradibus,  contra  Saraviam.     Geneva, 

1594. 

1593-  132-  JBancroftf  Ulchnrd  :  A  Survey  of  the  pretended  Holy  Disci- 
pline, containing  the  beginnings,  success,  parts,  proceedings,  authority,  and 
doctrine  of  it ;  with  some  of  the  manifold  and  material  repugnances,  vari- 
eties, and  uncertainties  in  that  behalf.  Faithfully  gathered  by  way  of  his- 
torical narration  out  of  the  books  and  writings  of  principal  favorers  of  that 
Platform.     4to,     Lond.  1593. 

133.  Dangerous  Positions  and  Proceedings  published  and  practised 

within  this  Island  of  Britain,  under  pretence  of  Reformation,  and  for  the 
Presbyterial  Discipline.  4to.  Lond.  1595.  Reprinted,  as  also  the  Su7'vey, 
etc.,  in  1663.     Lond.     4to. 

134.  UllsOUf  Thomas:  The  Perpetual  Government  of  Christ's 
Church.  4to,  pp.  414,  black  letter.  London,  1693.  Reprinted  in  1610 ; 
in  Latin,  161 1.     New  ed.,  Oxford,  8vo,  1842. 

1594-  135-  -HToo/ver,  JJ*<?/iarri  .*  Of  the  Laws  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity.  Four 
Books.  Fol.  Lond.  1594.  Book  V.,  1597 ;  Books  VL  and  VIH.,  1648: 
Book  VIL,  1662.  See  Preface  to  Keble's  edition,  4  vols.  8vo,  1836 ;  3  vols. 
8vo,  1841,  Lond.  3d  edit.,  3  vols.  8vo,  Oxf.  1845.  Ed.  Hanbury,  3  vols. 
8vo,  Lond.  1830. 

135  a.  Pithou:  Les  Libertes  de  I'Eglise  Gallicane.     Paris,  1594. 
1598.       136.  JRaiuoldSf  John:  Judgment  concerning  Episcopacy,  whether  it 
be   God's  ordinance.     In  a  letter  to  Sir  Francis  Knollys,  Sept.  19,  1598. 
Lond.  1 641. 

137. Apologia  Thesiumde  Sacra  Scriptura  et  Ecclesia.  Lond.  1602,  8vo. 

138.  SutcUffe,  3Iatthew:  De  Pontifice  Romano,  ejusque  injustissima 
in  Ecclesia  dominatione,  adversus  Robertum  Bellarminum,  et  universum 
Jesuitarum  sodalitium,  Libri  V.     4to.     Lond.  1599. 
1600.       139.  De  Vera  Christi  Ecclesia  contra  Bellarminum.  4to.  Lond.  1 600. 

140.  Fieldf  JRlchard :  Of  the  Church.  Four  Books.  4to.  Lond. 
1606.  Book  v.,  4to,  1610;  with  an  Appendix  in  three  parts.  Second  td\- 
tion  :  Five  Books,  very  much  enlarged  in  the  III.  Book,  and  in  the  Appen- 
dix. Fol.  Oxford,  1628.  77/z>rtf  edition:  Oxf.  1635.  Fol.  Reprinted  by 
Eccl.  Hist.  Soc,  4  vols.  8vo.     Camb.  1847-52,  and  London,  1S54. 

1604.  141.  Cosln,  Richavd:  Ecclesice  Anglicanoe  Politeia  in  Tabulas  di- 
gesta.  Fol.  Lond.  1604.  Editio  ultima,  prioribus  longe  emendatior;  cui 
insuper  de  novo  proefigitur  succincta  authoris  eruditissimi  vitae  narratio. 
Fol.     Oxon.  1684. 

1605.  142.  Morton,  Thomas:  Apologia  Catholica  de  Notis  Ecclesioe.  4to. 
Lond.  1605.  The  author,  afterward  Bishop  of  Durham,  drew  up,  by  com- 
mand of  Charles  I.,  the  famous  Book  of  Sports. 

12 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  395 

[605.  143.  UradshaWf  William:  English  Puritanism,  containing  the 
main  opinions  of  the  rigidest  sort  of  those  that  went  by  that  name  in  the 
realm  of  England.     Lond.  1605. 

144.  A.tn€Sf  IVilliftin:  Puritanismus  Anglicanus,  sive  pvxcipua  dog- 
mata eorum  qui  inter  vulgo  dictos  Puritanos  in  Anglia  rigidiores  habentur. 
8vo.  Frankfort,  1610.  Also,  4to,  Lond,  1641.  This  is  a  translation  of 
the  work  last  named.  There  is  an  abstract  of  it  in  Neal's  Hist,  of  the 
Puritans. 

[607,  145.  Tlie  A.uthovity  of  the  Churc'h  in  making  Canons  and  Constitu- 
tions concerning  things  indifferent.     Lond.  1607.     Oxford,  1634. 

[60S.  146.  Bernardf  Hichard:  Christian  Advertisements  and  Counsels 
of  Peace.  Also  Dissuasions  from  the  Separatists'  Schism,  commonly  called 
Brownisme,  etc.     Lond.  1608. 

147.  AinsiVOrth,  Henry:  Counterpoyson.  4to.  1608.  In  reply 
to  Bernard. 

148.  >S//i ?/#/*,  «7b /in;  Parallels, Censures,  and  Observations.  4to.  1609. 
Also  in  answer  to  Bernard. 

149.  Knollys,  Sir  Francis:  Treatise  against  the  Usurpation  of  the 
Papal  Bishops.  8vo.  Lond.  1608.  Ascribed  by  some,  says  Wood,  to 
Rainolds. 

150.  Jfliitef  tfohn  :  The  Way  to  the  True  Church;  wherein  the  prin- 
cipal motives  persuading  to  Romanism,  and  Questions  touching  the  nature 
and  authority  of  the  Church  and  Scriptures,  are  familiarly  disputed,  and 
driven  to  their  issues,  where,  this  day,  they  stick  between  the  Papists  and 
us,  etc.  4to.  Lond.  1608,  and  1610.  De  hoc  inter  nos  questio  versatur, 
utrum  apud  nos,  an  apud  illos,  vera  ecclesia  sit.  Augustin.  De  Unitate 
Ecclesice,  c.  ii.  Fifth  ed.,  together  with  a  Defence  of  the  Way  to  the  True 
Church,  against  A.  D.  his  Reply;  and  The  Orthodox  Faith  and  Way  to  the 
Church  explained  and  justified:  in  answer  to  a  Popish  treatise,  entitled 
White  dyed  Black.  By  Francis  White,  D.  D.,  elder  brother  of  John 
White.  The  three  works  in  one  volume,  folio,  Lond.  1624.  This  volume 
is  a  fair  sample  of  the  best  theological  writing  of  the  beginning  of  the  17th 
centurj' :  it  is  at  once  thoroughly  evangelical  and  thoroughly  learned  ;  its 
argumentation  severely  logical,  clear,  and  convincing. 

[609.  151.  Penry f  fT€}hn  :  The  History  of  Corah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram,  etc., 
applied  to  the  Prelacy,  Ministry,  and  Church  Assemblies  of  England. 
Lond.  1609. 

[610.  152.  Hernard,  Jiichard :  Plain  Evidences:  the  Church  of  England 
is  apostolical ;  the  Separation  schismatical ;  directed  against  Mr.  Ainsworth 
the  Separatist,  and  Mr.  Smyth  the  Se-Baptist :  both  of  them  severally  oppos- 
ing the  booke  called  "  The  Separatists'  Schism."     Lond.  1610. 

153.  Ilobinsonf  John  :  A  Justification  of  Separation  from  the  Church 
of  England :  against  Mr.  Richard  Bernard  his  Invective,  intituled  The  Sep- 
aratists' Schisme.     4to,     s.  1.     16 10. 

154.  Apologia   Christianorum   dictorum   Brownistarum  ac  Barrow- 

istarum.     1619.     Eng.  transl.  1625  and  1644:  Just  and  Necessary  Apology 

13 


396  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

of  certain  Christians,  etc.      Wor/:s,  vol.  ii.,  and  vol.  iii.,  pp.  4-83.     l2mo. 
Lond.  1851. 
1610.       155.  3Iovtoiif  Thomas:  Defence  of  the  Innocency  of  the  three  Cere- 
monies of  the  Church  of  England,  viz.,  Surplice,  Cross  after  Baptism,  and 
kneeling  at  the  Sacrament.     410.     Lond.  1610. 

155  a.  Stephaiius,  3Iatthias:  Tractatus  de  Jurisdictione.  4to. 
Franco.  161 1. 

1612.  156.  HecanuSf  Martin  :  Dissidium  Anglicanum  de  Primatu  Regis 
cum  brevi  Prefatione  ad  Catholicos  in  Anglia  degentes.  i2mo.  Mogunt. 
1612.    Assailing  the  Anglican  dogma  of  the  royal  supremacy.    Answered  by 

157.  Jlart'lSf  Richard:  Concordia  Anglicana  de  Primatu  Ecclesioe 
regio,  etc.     Svo.     Lond.  1612.     In  English,  with  additions,  4to,  1614. 

158.  Salineroilf  Alphonso  :  De  Ecclesi*  nascentis  exordiis,  et  in 
Acta  Apostolorum.     Opera,  Vol.  XIL     Fol.     Col.  Ag.  1612. 

1613.  159.  3Iason,  Francis:  Of  the  Consecration  of  the  Bishops  of  the 
Church  of  England;  with  their  Succession,  Jurisdiction,  etc.,  as  also  of  the 
Ordination  of  Priests  and  Deacons.  Fol.  Lond.  1613.  Latin  translation: 
Vindiciae  Ecclesise  Anglicanae,  sive  de  legitimo  ejusdem  ministerio ;  id  est, 
de  Episcoporum  Successione,  Consecratione,  Electione,  et  Confirmatione ; 
itemde  Presbyterorum  et  Diaconorum  Ordinatione,  Libri  V.  Editio  secunda, 
priore  Anglicana  longe  auctior  et  emendatior.  Fol.,  1625,  Lond.,  and  1638. 
Of  this  an  Eng.  transl.,  with  additions,  was  published  in  1728,  "by  John 
Lindsay,  a  priest  of  the  Church  of  England."  Folio.  Lond.  Reprinted 
1 734.  Appended  is  a  Sermon  of  Dr.  Mason's  concerning  the  Authority  of 
the  Church  in  making  Canons  and  Constitutions  concerning  things  indifferent. 

160.  Chaiiipneif,  Anthony:  Treatise  on  the  Vocation  of  Bishops 
and  other  ecclesiastical  Ministers,  proving  the  Ministers  of  the  pretended 
Reformed  Churches  to  have  no  Calling.  4to.  Douay,  161 6.  Latin  trans- 
lation :  Tractatus  de  Vocatione  Ministrorum,  etc.   161 8.  In  reply  to  Mason. 

161.  TJsher,  tTames:  Gravissimoe  Questiones  de  Christianarum  Eccle- 
siarum  in  Occidentis  prsesertim  partibus,  ab  apostolicis  temporibus  ad  nos- 
tram  usque  oetatem,  continua  successione  et  statu,  Historica  Explicatio.  4to. 
Lond.  1613.  Reprinted  at  Hanover,  8vo,  1658.  Greatly  enlarged  in  a  new 
edition:  Opus  integrum  ab  auctore  auctum  et  recognitum.  Fol.  Lond.  1687; 
together  with  his  Antiquities  of  the  British  Churches.  Works,  vol.  ii., 
pp.  1-415.  8vo.  Dubl.  1847,  sq.  Replied  to  by  Usher's  uncle,  Rd.  Stani- 
hurst. 

162.  Stanihiirst,  itichard,  Hiberni  Dubliniensis :  Brevis  Pre- 
monitio  pro  futura  concertatione  cum  Jacobo  Usserio,  qui  in  sua  historica 
explicatione  conatur  probare  Pontificem  Romanum  (legitimum  in  terris 
Christi  Vicarium)  verum  et  germanum  Anti-Christum.  Svo.  Douay,  1615. 
This  was_  designed  as  a  prelude  to  a  larger  work,  which  never  appeared. 
Usher's  book,  presented  by  Abp.  Abbott  to  King  James  I.  as  "  the  eminent 
first-fruits  of  the  University  of  Dublin,"  was  greeted  with  the  warmest  praise 
by  contemporary  scholars. 

163.  Parker,  Robert:  De  Politeia  Ecclesiastica  Christi,  el  hierar- 

i4 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  39/ 

chica  opposita,  libri  tres.     Tnquihus  tarn  verx  discipline  fundamenta  ;  quam 
omnes  fere  de  eadem  controversia,  summo  cum  judicio  et  doctrina  methodice 
pertractantur.     4to.     Francf.  1616. 
1613.       164.    T*ei'ItinSf    Villiam:    Exposition   of    the   Creed:     The  Holy 
Catholic  Church.     Works,     Vol.  i.,  pp.  123-328.     P^ol.     Lond.  1616. 

165.  SradshnWf  Villiam :  Unreasonableness  of  the  Separation 
made  apparent  by  an  Examination  of  Mr.  Johnson's  pretended  "Reasons," 
■  published  anno  1608.  4to.  Dort.  1614. 
161 7.  166.  De  Do  minis  f  Mark  Antony :  De  Republica  Ecclesiastica.  Part 
I.  Fol.  Lond.  161 7.  Written  to  prove  that  the  Pope  of  Rome  has  no 
supremacy  over  other  Bishops.  Part  11.  was  published  in  1620.  P'ol.  Lond. 
Part  III.  in  1622.     Folio.     Hanov. 

167.  Smith,  llichard :  De  Auctore  et  Essentia  Protestantica:^  Eccle- 
sire  et  Religionis.     Lib.  IL     Svo.     Paris,  1619.     Eng.  transl.  8vo.    1621. 
161S.       168.   Calde r wood,  David  :  De  Regimine  Ecclesise  Scoticanre  brevis 
relatio.     Lond.  1618. 

168  a.  DeUarmine:  De  Potestate  Romani  Pontificis.     Roma.  1618. 

1620.  169.  SpotSlVOOde,  tTohn:  Refutatio  Libelli  de  Regimine  Ecclesia 
Scoticanre.     Lond.  1620.     In  reply  to  Calderwood. 

1 62 1.  170.  Calderwood,  David:  The  Altar  of  Damascus,  or  the  Pattern 
of  the  English  Hierarchic  and  Church  Policie  obtruded  upon  the  Church 
of  Scotland.  8vo.  1621.  Without  author's  name  or  place  of  publication.  In 
rejoinder  to  Spotswoode.  In  Latin,  greatly  enlarged  :  Altare  Damascenum, 
seu  Ecclesia;  Anglicanae  Politia  Ecclesise  Scoticanoe  obtrusa,  etc.  Studio 
et  opera  Davidis  Calderwood.    4to.     1623.    Best  ed.  4to.    Lugd.  Bat.  1708. 

1622.  171.  A.m€S,  William:  Reply  to  Bishop  Morton's  Defence  of  the 
three  Ceremonies.     Lond.  1620. 

172.  Fresh  Suit  against  Roman  Ceremonies  in  God's  Worship,  or 

a  Triplication   to  Dr.  Burgess's  Rejoinder  for  Dr.  ISIorton.     4to.     Load. 
1633.     In  reply  to 

173.  Dnrgess,  John:  The  lawfulness  of  kneeling  in  receiving  the 
Lord's  vSupper.     Lond,  1 63 1. 

1624.  174,  Abbot,  Geovffe  :  A  Treatise  of  the  perpetual  Visilnlity  and  Suc- 
cession of  the  True  Church  in  all  ages,  4to,  Lond,  1624,  Without  author's 
name. 

1625.  175.  Cvahanthorp,  Richard:  Defensio  Ecclesire  Anglicana?,  con- 
tra M.  Antonii  de  Dominis,  D,  Archiepiscopi  Spalatensis  injurias:  Viri  omni 
virtute,  doctrinaque  spectatissimi,  D,  Rich.  Crakanthorp,  S.  T,  D,  Opus 
posthumum.  410.  Lond.  1625.  Reprinted  in  Libr.  Anglo-Cath,  Theol, 
8vo,  Oxon,  1847.  "No  book  I  have  yet  seen,"  says  Bishop  Barlow, 
"  has  so  rational  and  short  an  account  of  almost  all  popish  controversies." 
"  Held  for  the  most  exact  piece  of  controversy,"  says  Wood,  "  since  the 
Reformation." 

1626.  176.  Jackson,  Thomas:  A  Treatise  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Faith  and 
Church,  Lond.  1626.  U'orks,  3  vols.,  fol,,  Lond,  1673,  Vol,  iii,,  pp.  811- 
963,    A  new  edit,,  12  vols.,  Svo,  Oxf.  1844.    Vol.  xii.,pp.  1-345-    Reprinted 

15 


398  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

also  in  Tioo  Treatises  on  the  Church,  etc.,  eel.  by  \V.  Goode.  i6mo,  Lond. 
1843;  Phila.  1844.  Jackson  is  pronounced  by  Dr.  Pusey  "one  of  the  best 
and  greatest  minds  our  Church  has  nurtured." 
1626.  177.  3IorimiSf  tTohn:  Exercitationes  Ecclesiasticse.  De  Patriarch- 
arum  et  Primatum  origine,  primisque  orbis  terrarum  ecclesiasticis  divisioni- 
bus.  4to,  Paris,  1626.  Republished,  editio  nova,  tertia  parte  auctior,  fol. 
Paris,  1686. 

1628.  178.  Slonclelf  David:  Pseudo-Isidorus  et  Turrianus  Vapulantes. 
4to.  Genev?e,  1628.  Exposing  the  spuriousness  of  the  pretended  Decretals 
against  the  Jesuit,  Turrien.  Blondel  is,  perhaps,  most  extensively  known 
by  his  Treatise  entitled,  Familier  Eclaircissement  de  la  Question,  si  une 
P'emme  a  ^te  assise  au  siege  Papal  de  Rome,  entre  L^on  IV.  et  Benoist  III. 
Svo.  Amsterd.  1647.  New  ed.  enlarged  and  corrected,  1649.  Latin  transl. 
by  Curcellseus :  De  Joanne  Papissa,  etc.     8vo.     Amsterd.  1657. 

179.  A-ineSf  IVilliCL^n:  Bellamiinus  Enervatus,  sive  Disputationes 
Anti-Bellarminianae,  a  Gulielmo  Amesio,  S.  S.  Theol.  Doct.  in  Acad.  Franck. 
4  vols.  32mo  (in  2),  Amstel,  1627-8.  Opera,  5  vols.  i2mo,  Amst.  1658.  Vol. 
I.,  Lib.  iii.  Vol.  II.,  Lib.  i.-iii.  In  Confutation  of  Bellarmine :  De  Con- 
troversiis.     Ames  adhered  to  the  rigid  views  of  his  master,  Perkins. 

1629.  180.  Gerhard,  tTohn  :  Loci  Communes  Theologici  X.  vol.  fol.  Jena, 
1629  ;  Geneva,  1639.  Vol.  V.,  De  Ecclesia.  Vol.  VI.,  De  Ministerio  Eccle- 
siastico. 

181.  ForheSf  rTohli:  Irenicum  pro  Ecclesia  Scotiana.  Aberd.  1629, 
4to.  Opera,  2  vol.  fol.,  Amst.  1 703. 
1631.  182.  Da'lllSf  John:  De  I'Employ  des  Peres.  Geneva,  163 1.  Eng. 
translation  :  A  Treatise  concerning  the  -right  Use  of  the  Fathers  in  Matters 
of  Controversy.  4to.  Lond.  1651.  Re-edited,  8vo,  Lond.  1841.  In  Latin, 
enlarged  by  the  author:  JOANNis  Dall^i  de  usu  Patrum  ad  Definienda 
Religionis  capita,  quce  sunt  hodie  controversa.  4to.  Genevae,  1654.  DailM 
was  preceded  in  this  inquiry  by  Daniel  Toussaint. 

183.  TossanuSf  D.  :  Synopsis  de  Patribus,  quantum  eis  deferendum, 
quo  tempore  vixerint,  qua  cum  cautione  legendi,  quseque  coram  dotes  et 
ncevi  fuerint.     4to.     Heidelb.  1603. 

184.  Scrivener,  Mattheiv  :  Apologia  pro  Sanctis  EcclesiDs  Patribus 
adversus  Jo.  Dalloeum.  Lond.  1672.  A  critique  is  also  found  in  Reeves' 
Dissertation  on  the  right  Use  of  the  Fathers,  prefixed  to  his  translation  of 
Justin  M.,  Lond.  1709. 

185.  Blunt,  J.  J,:  The  right  Use  of  the  early  Fathers.  Lond.  1857. 
"  Largely  polemical  against  the  depreciation  of  the  Fathers  by  Daille," 
whose  errors  are  fairly  exposed. 

186.  Davenant,  John:  Determinationes  Questionum  quarundam 
theologicarum.  Fol.  Cantab.  1 634.  Second  ed.  enlarged,  1634.  Transl. 
by  Allport,  8vo,  Lond.  1844-46.  Vol.  II.,  p.  365,  quest,  xxviii. ;  p.  400, 
quest.  XXXV. ;  p.  437,  quest,  xlii.;  p.  474,  quest,  xlvi.;  p.  479,  quest,  xlvii. 

186  a.  CannCf  John:  Necessity  of  Separation  from  the  Church  of 
England.     Amst.,  8vo,  1834;  Lond.,  8vo,  1849. 

16 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  399 

1631.  187.  Gillespie,  George:  Dispute  against  the  English  Popish  Cere- 
monies obtruded  upon  the  Church  of  Scotland.     4to.     Edinb.  1637. 

188.  The  Rights  and  Liberties  of  the  Church  Asserted  and  Vin- 
dicated against  the  pretended  Right  and  Usurpation  of  Patronage.  Edinb. 
1639. 

1S9.  Maxwell f  John  :  Episcopacie  not  abjured  in  Scotland.  Lond. 
1640.  The  author  was  Bishop  of  Ross  in  Scotland;  afterward  of  Killala, 
Ireland. 

1640.  190.  Hall,  Josepll  :  Episcopacie  by  Divine  Right  asserted.  In  three 
Parts,  4to,  Lond.  1 640.  Reprint,  8vo,  Lond.  1808.  Works,  vol.  x.,  8vo, 
Oxford,  1837-9. 

191.  An  humble  Remonstrance  to  the  High  Court  of  Parliament. 

4to.     Lond.  1640. 

192.  A  Defence  of  the  Humble  Remonstrance   against  Smectym- 

nuus,     4to.     Lond.  1641. 

193.  A  short  Answer  to  the  tedious  Vindication  of  Smectymnuus. 

4to.     Lond.  1 641. 

194.  A    modest  Ofifer  of  some    meet   Considerations  tendered  to 

the  Assembly  of  Divines  concerning  Church  Government.  4to.  Lond. 
1644,  and  1660. 

1641.  195.  Siiiectymnnas  :  An  Answer  to  a  Book  entituled  "An  Humble 
Remonstrance ;  "  in  which  the  original  of  Liturgy  and  Episcopacy  is  dis- 
cussed, and  queries  propounded  concerning  both.  The  parity  of  bishops 
and  presbyters  in  Scripture  demonstrated.  The  occasion  of  their  imparity 
in  antiquity  discovered.  The  disparity  of  the  ancient  and  our  modern  bishops 
manifested.  The  antiquity  of  ruling  elders  in  the  Church  vindicated.  The 
prelatical  Church  bounded.  4to,  pp.  104.  Lond.  1641.  The  pseudonym 
in  the  title  is  composed  of  the  united  initials  of  the  authors'  names,  viz., 
Stephen  Marshall,  Edm.  Calamy,  Thos.  Young,  Matt.  Newcomen,  William 
Spurstow. 

196.  A  Vindication  of  the  Answer  to  the  Humble  Remonstrance 

from  the  unjust  imputations  of  frivolousness  and  falsehood,  wherein  the 
Cause  of  Liturgy  and  Episcopacy  is  further  debated.     4to.     Lond.  1641. 

197-202.  A  Collection  of  Tracts,  entitled  Certain  brief  Treatises 
written  by  divers  learned  men,  concerning  the  Ancient  and  Modern  Govern- 
ment of  the  Church :  wherein  both  the  primitive  institution  of  Episcopacy  is 
maintained,  and  the  lawfulness  of  the  ordination  of  the  Protestant  ministers 
beyond  the  seas  likewise  defended.  4to.  Oxford,  164 1.  This  volume  con- 
tains six  Dissertations,  entitled  respectively:  i.  A  Summaiy  View  of  the 
Government  both  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament,  whereby  the  Episcopal 
government  of  Christ's  Church  is  vindicated  out  of  the  rude  draughts  of 
Lancelot  Andrews,  late  Bishop  of  Winchester.  2.  The  Original  of  Bishops 
and  Metropolitans,  briefly  laid  down  by  Martin  Bucer,  John  Reinolds,  and 
James,  Archbishop  of  Armagh.  3.  A  Disquisition  touching  proconsular 
Asia  and  its  Seven  Churches,  by  Archbishop  Usher.  4.  A  Declaration  of 
the  Patriarchal  Government  of  the  Ancient  Church,  by  Edw.  Brcrewood. 

17 


400  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

5.  A  brief  Declaration  of  the  several  Forms  of  Government  received  in  the 
Reformed  Churches  beyond  the  seas;  by  John  Duree.  6.  The  Lawfulness 
of  the  Ordination  of  the  Ministers  of  those  Churches,  maintained  against 
the  Donatists ;  by  Francis  Mason. 
1641.  203.  Usher,  James:  Dr.  Raynolds  his  Judgment  touching  the  Ori- 
ginal of  Episcopacy  more  largely  Confirmed  out  of  Antiquity.  4to.  Lond. 
1 641. 

204.  JMilton,  tJohn  :  Of  Reformation  touching  Church  Discipline  in 
England,  and  the  Causes  that  hitherto  have  hindered  it.  In  two  Books.  4to. 
Lond.  1 641. 

205.  Of  Prelatical   Episcopacy,  and  whether   it   may   be    deduced 

from  the  apostolical  times,  by  virtue  of  those  testimonies  which  are  al- 
leged to  that  purpose  in  some  late  treatises ;  one  whereof  goes  under  the 
name  of  James,  Archbishop  of  Armagh.     4to.     Lond.  1 641. 

206.  The    Reason  of  Church  Government   urged   against   Prelaty. 

In  two  Books.    4to.    Lond.  1641. 

207.  Animadvei*sions  upon  the  Remonstrant's  Defence  against  Smec- 

tymnuus.     4to.     Lond.  1641.     In  reply  to  Bishop  Hall. 

208.  An  Apology    for   Smectymnuus  :    against   a   Pamphlet  called 

"A  modest  Confutation  of  the  Animadversions."     4to.     Lond.  1642. 

209.  Thorndihef  Herbert :  Of  the  Government  of  Churches ;  a 
Discourse  pointing  at  the  primitive  Form.  Camb.  1641.  Reprint,  Lond. 
184J.      Works,  Lib.  Ang.-Cath.  Theol.     Oxf.  1844-54. 

210.  GreviUef  Robert,  Lord  Broo7i:e:  A  Discourse  opening  the 
nature  of  that  Episcopacy  which  is  exercised  in  England.  Lond.  1641. 
The  author  is  described  by  Wood  as  "  an  active  man  of  the  Long  Parliament, 
against  the  prerogative,  bishops,  and  the  established  discipline  of  the 
Church;  "  that  is  to  say,  a  "  thorough -going  Puritan." 

211.  ^  Rent  in  the  Lawn  Sleeves;  or  Episcopacy  Eclipsed,  by  the 
most  happy  interposition  of  a  Pai-liament.  Discoursed  dialogue-wise  between 
a  Bishop  and  a  Jesuit.     4to.     Lond.  164 1. 

212.  Edivards,  Thomas:  Reasons  against  the  Independent  Gov- 
ernment of  particular  Congregations.  4to.  Lond.  1641.  The  author  of 
the  Gangrmia,  and  an  uncompromising  Presbyterian,  Edwards  was  gibbeted 
by  Milton,  as  "  Shallow  Edwards." 

213.  Rloildel,  David:  Traite  historique  de  la  Primaute  en  I'Eglise. 
Fol.  Geneve,  1641.  In  reply  to  Cardinal  Duperron,  who  had  written,  as 
early  as  1620,  against  James  I.  of  England,  in  defence  of  the  supremacy  of 
the  Pope. 

•\  214.  Henderson,  Alexander  :  The  Government  and  Order  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland.  Henderson  was  a  leader  in  the  (so  called)  seco7id 
Reformation  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  :  the  first  reformation  having  been 
from  Popery,  the  second  was  from  Prelacy.  He  was  further  distinguished 
by  the  chivahy  of  his  attempt  to  convert  Charles  I.  to  Presbyterianism,  and, 
as  it  is  reported,  by  the  narrowness  of  his  escape  from  being  converted  by 
the  king  to  Episcopacy.     A  full  record  of  the  discussion  is  preserved  in  a 

18 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  4OI 

volume  entitled,  The  papers  which  passed  at  Newcastle  betwixt  his  sacred 
Majesty  and  M.  Alex.  Henderson,  concerning  the  Change  of  Church  Gov- 
ernment, A.  D.  1646.  8vo.  Lend.  1649.  Reprinted  in  Works  of  King 
Charles  I.,  Svo,  Hague,  i649,'5i ;  Lond.  59,  '62,  etc.;  and  in  Voice  of  the 
Church,  Svo,  vol.  i.,  Lond.  1S40. 

1641.  215.    Gillespie f   George:  Assertion  of  the    Discipline  and  Govern- 
ment of  the  Church  of  Scotland.     Edinb.  1641. 

216.  JPefai'iilS,  DiOHf/sius:  Dissertationum  Ecclesiasticarum  Libri 
duo,  in  quibus  de  Episcoporum  dignitate  et  potestate,  deque  aliis  ecclesias- 
ticis  dogmatibus  disputatur.     Paris,  1641. 

217.  De    Eclesiastica    Hierarchia    Libri    quinque,    in    quibus    po- 

ti?simum  de  Episcopis  et  Presbyteris,  deque  eorum  difterentia  disputatur. 
Fol.  Paris,  1641.  As  early  as  1622  this  learned  Jesuit  and  able  polemic 
had  come  forth  against  Salmasius,  under  the  pseudonym  of  Antonius  Ker- 
koetius  Aremoricus,  in  a  volume  entitled  Animadversorum  liber  ad  CI.  Sal- 
masii  notas  in  Tertullianum  de  Pallio.  This  was  followed  (1623)  by  numer- 
ous replies  and  rejoinders,  on  either  side,  in  which  all  moderation  was  laid 
aside;  the  disputants  vying  with  each  other  in  the  violence  of  their  invec- 
tive. In  this  controversy  the  most  important  work  from  the  pen  of  Sal- 
masius was  the  following  : 

218.  Walonis  Jlessalinl  de  Episcopis  et  Presbyteris,  contra  D.  Peta- 
vium  Loiolitam  Dissertatio  prima.     Sm.  Svo.     Lugd.  Bat.  1641. 

219.  Tlie  First  and  large  Petition  of  the  City  of  London,  etc.,  for  a 
Reformation  in  Church  Government,  as  also  for  the  Abolishment  of  Episco- 
pacy ;  with  a  Remonstrance  thereto  annexed,  of  the  many  pressures  and 
grievances  occasioned  by  the  Bishops,  and  the  sundry  inconveniences  inci- 
dent to  Episcopacy.  The  tyranny  and  extortion  practised  in  ecclesiastical 
courts,  etc,     4to.     Lond.  164 1. 

1642.  220.  Selfletlf  John:  Versio  et  Comment,  ad  Eutychii  EcclesicX  Alex- 
andrine Origines.     410.     Lond.  1642,  1656-9. 

221.  Hales,  JTohn  ("the  ever-memorable"):  A  Tract  concerning 
Schism  and  Schismatics ;  wherein  is  briefly  discovered  the  original  cause  of 
all  schism.  Lond.  1642.  Written  as  early  as  1636,  at  the  request  of  Chil- 
lingworth.  The  author's  Tract  concerning  the  Power  of  the  Keys  was  pub- 
lished, with  others,  in  1677. 

222.  TJiOniflikef  Herbert :  Of  Religious  Assemblies,  and  the  pub- 
lic Se^^•ice  of  God ;  a  discourse  according  to  apostolical  rule  and  practice. 
Lond.  1642.      Works,  vol.  ii.     Oxf.  1S44. 

223.  Taylor,  Jeremy  :  Of  the  sacred  Order  and  Offices  of  Episco- 
pacy, by  divine  institution,  apostolical  tradition,  and  Catholic  practice, 
asserted  against  the  Acephali  and  the  Aerians,  new  and  old.  4to.  Oxford, 
1642. 

224.  Heylin,  Peter:  The  Histor}'  of  Episcopacy.  In  two  Parts.  By 
Theophilus  Churchman.     4to.     Land.  1642-3. 

225.  Aerius  Redivivus:  or  the  Histor)-  of  the  Presbyterians,  from 

1536  to  1647.     2d  ed.     Fol.     Lond.  1672. 

26  19 


402  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

1642.  226.  Cotton,  tfohll  :  The  Doctrine  of  the  Church,  to  which  are  com- 
mitted the  Keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  4to.  Lond.  1642.  2d  ed. 
Cotton,  who  wrote  in  defence  of  the  interference  of  the  civil  power  in  sup- 
port of  the  truth,  was  answered  by 

227.  IVill'uuns,  Hoger  :  The  bloody  Tenet  of  Persecution  for  the 
Cause  of  Conscience.     Replied  to  by 

228.  Cotton f  tfohn:  The  bloody  Tenet  washed  and  made  white  in 
the  Blood  of  the  Lamb.     1647. 

229.  WilliflitlSf  Hoger  :  The  bloody  Tenet  yet  more  bloody  by  Mr. 
Cotton's  endeavor  to  wash  it  white  in  the  Blood  of  the  Lamb.     1652, 

i  230.  The  Way  of  the  Churches  in  New  England. 

A  231.  Riitherfordf  Samuel:  A  peaceable  and  temperate  Plea  for 
Paul's  Presbytery  in  Scotland ;  or  a  modest  and  brotherly  Dispute  of  the 
Government  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  wherein  our  discipline  is  demon- 
strated to  be  the  true  apostolic  way  of  divine  truth.  4to.  Lond.  1642.  As 
an  active  member  of  the  Westminster  Assembly,  Rutherford  comes  in  for 
a  share  of  Milton's  undying  censure,  in  his  Poem  on  the  New  Forcers  of 
Conscience  :  "  Because  ye  have  thrown  off  your  Prelate-Lord,"  etc. 

232.  XJsher,  James  :  The  Bishop  of  Armagh's  Direction  concerning 
the  Liturgy  and  Episcopal  Government.     4to.     Lond.  1642,  and  1660. 

233.  Aj}Ollonii  :  Jus  ]\Iagistratus  circa  Sacra ;  sive  Tractatus  Theolo- 
gicus  de  Jure  Magistratias  circa  Res  Ecclesiasticas.  Medioburgi  Zelandorum, 
1642.  A  standard  work  in  the  Erastian  controversy.  The  author  was  min- 
ister of  the  Dutch  Church,  at  Middelburg,  in  Holland. 

1644.       234.  Consideratio  quarundarum  Controversiarum  ad  Regimen  Ec- 

clesiae  Dei  spectantium,  quce  in  Angliae  Regno  liodie  agitantur.    Lond.  1644. 
Eng.  translation,  A  Consideration  of  certain  Controversies,  etc.  Lond.  1645. 

235.  Edwards f  Thomas:  Antapologia,  etc.,  wherein  are  handled 
many  of  the  controversies  of  these  times;  viz.,  I.  Of  a  particular  Visible 
Church.  2.  Of  Classes  and  Synods.  3.  Of  the  Scriptures,  how  far  a  rule 
for  Church  Government.    4.  Of  Forms  of  Prayer,  etc.,  etc.  4to.  Lond.  1644. 

236.  ChillingiVOrth,  William  :  The  apostolical  Institution  of  Epis- 
copacy. This  tract,  first  published  separately  under  this  title,  in  1 644, 
without  the  author's  name,  first  appeared  in  1641,  as  an  Appendix  to  Bishop 
Morton's  Judgment  of  Protestant  Divines  in  behalf  of  the  Episcopal  Degree 
in  the  Church ;  a  volume  published  without  the  compiler's  name,  by  Arch- 
bishop Usher,  under  the  title  of  Confessions  and  Proofs  of  Protestant 
Divines  of  Reformed  Churches ;  that  Episcopacy  is,  in  respect  of  the  office, 
according  to  the  word  of  God,  and  in  respect  to  the  use,  the  best ;  the  editor 
adding  his  own  treatise,  Of  the  Original  of  Bishops,  etc.,  with  his  name 
prefixed.  The  tract  was  reprinted  in  1660,  together  with  a  Speech  of  Lord 
Falkland  concerning  Episcopacy,  and  entitled  The  Apostolical  Institution 
of  Episcopacy  Demonstrated. 

237.  Rutherford,  Samuel:  The  due  Right  of  Presbyteries;  or  a 
peaceable  Plea  for  the  Government  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  4to,  Lond. 
1644.     Chiefly  against  the  Independents. 

20 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  4O3 

1644.  238.  Unfherfordf  Samuel:  Lex  Rex:  A  Treatise  of  Civil  Policy 
concerning  Prerogative.     4to.     Lond.  1644. 

1645.  239.  SalmasiiiSf  Claude:  De  Primatu  Pap?e.  Lugd.  Bat.  1645.  A 
thesaurus  of  patristic  testimony. 

240.  MatJier,  Richard^  and  TJioinsoUf  William:  A  modest 
and  brotherly  Answer  to  Mr.  Chas.  Herle  his  Book  against  the  Independency 
of  Churches.     8vo.     Lond.  1644. 

241.  liaillie,  Robert:  A  Dissuasive  from  the  Errours  of  the  Time. 
Part  I.,  Against  the  Independents  and  other  sects.  4to.  Lond.  1645. 
Part  II.,  Against  the  Anabaptists.     4to.     Lond.  1647. 

1646.  242.  Bloudelf  David:  Apologia  pro  Sententia  Hieronymi  de  Epis- 
copis  et  Presbyteris.  4to.  Amst.  1646.  Written  to  prove  that  in  the  ear- 
liest times  the  names  Presbyter  and  Episcopus  were  synonymous  ;  presenting 
the  argument  from  antiquity  with  a  remarkable  display  of  erudition. 

243.  De  Formula  regnante  Christo  in  veterum  monumentis  usu.  4to. 

Amstel.  1646. 

244.  Jus  Divinuni  Regiminis  Ecclesiastici ;  or  the  Divine 
Right  of  Church  Government  asserted,  and  evidenced  by  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. By  sundry  ministers  of  Christ  within  the  city  of  London.  Sm.  4to. 
Lond.  1646.  Am.  Reprint,  N.  Y.,  1844.  A  thorough  Exposition  of  the 
Presbyterian  Scheme  of  Polity,  as  held  by  the  fathers  of  Presbytery  in 
England. 

245.  31axwellf  John:  The  Burthen  of  Issachar;  or  the  tyrannical 
Power  and  Practices  of  the  Presbyterial  Government  in  Scotland ;  in  their 
I,  Parochial  Session;  2,  Presbytery;  3,  Provincial  Synods;  4,  General 
Assembly.  With  the  Articles  of  Presbyterian  Faith  inconsistent  with 
Monarchy.  Whereby  it  is  evident  that  Presbyterial  fingers  are  heavier  than 
Episcopal  loins;  these  correcting  with  a  rod,  those  with  a  scorpion.    4to. 

1646,  s.  1. 

246.  JBaillie,  Robert:  An  historical  Vindication  of  the  Government 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  etc.     4to.     Lond,  1 646. 

247.  Taylor f  Jeremy  :  A  Discourse  concerning  Prayer  extempore.  4to. 
Lond.  1646.  Without  author's  name.  Second  ed.,  enlarged  :  An  Apology 
for  authorized  and  set  Forms  of  Liturgy.  8vo.  Lond.  1649;  4to,  '53, '57, '73- 

248.  Gillespie f  George:  Aaron's  Rod  blossoming;  or.  The  divine 
Ordinances  of  Church  Government  Vindicated,  etc.  Published  by  authority. 
4to.  Lond.  1646.  "  The  most  able,  learned,  systematic,  and  complete 
work  on  the  Erastian  controversy  in  existence."  {Bamiertnaii.) 

249.  Rutherford,  Samuel:  The  divine  Right  of  Church  Govern- 
ment and  Excommunication.  4to.  Lond.  1646.  Reprinted  in  The  Pres- 
byterian's Armoury.     Edinb.  1 846. 

1647.  250.  Seaman,  Lazarus  :  A  Vindication  of  the  Judgment  of  the 
Reformed  Churches  concerning  Ordination,  and  Laying  on  of  Hands.    Lond. 

1647.  The  author  took  a  leading  part  in  the  debate  on  Church  government 
with  King  Charles  I.,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight. 

251.  Fernef  Henry  :  Episcopacy  and  Presbytery  considered.  Lond. 
1647. 

21 


404  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

164S.  252.  Hooker,  Thomas,  and  Cotton,  John:  A  Survey  of  the  Sum 
of  Church  Discipline.     4to.     Lond.  1648. 

,  253.  Ruthevfovd,  Samuel:  A  Survey  of  the  Survey  of  that  Sum 
of  Church  Discipline,  penned  by  Thomas  Hooker.  Lond.  4to.  Pp.  529. 
1848. 

254.  Way  of  the  Churches;  against  Baillie  and  Rutherford.  Lond. 
1648. 

255.  Charles  I,:  His  Majesty's  final  Answer  concerning  Episcopacie. 
Delivered  to  the  Commissioners  of  Parliament  the  first  of  Nov.,  1648.  4to. 
Pp.  29.     Lond.  1648. 

256.  Heasons  presented  by  the  Dissenting  Brethren  against  certain 
Propositions  concerning  Presbyterial  Government ;  with  the  Answers  of  the 
Assembly  of  Divines  to  the  Reasons  of  the  Dissenting  Brethren.  Lond. 
1648.  The  argument  for  the  Independent  theory,  as  put  forth  by  the  Inde- 
pendent members  of  the  Westminster  Assembly,  accompanied  with  an 
answer  by  the  framers  of  the  Westminster  Confession. 

257.  '*  Of  the  Laives  of  Ecclesiastical  Policy;  the  Sixth  and  Eighth 
Books.  By  Richard  Hooker.  A  work  long  expected,  and  now  pubhshed 
according  to  the  most  authentic  copies.  London.  Printed  by  R.  B.,  and 
are  to  be  sold  by  Geo.  Badger,  in  St.  Dunstan's  Churchyard  in  Fleet  Street. 
Small  4to.  Pp.  226."  Keble,  Pref.  p.  xvi.  :  "  No  trace  of  the  Seventh 
Book  appears  until  1662." 

258.  Hloudel,  David  :  De  Jure  Plebis  in  regimine  ecclesiastico.  8vo. 
Paris,  1648.    Published  as  a  Supplement  to  an  edition  of  the  work  following: 

259.  (xrotlus,  Hugo:  De  imperio  summarum  potestatum  circa  Sacra. 
Opera,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  203-297.     Fol.     Lond.  1679. 

1649.  260.  Thortidlke,  Herbert :  A  Discourse  of  the  Right  of  the  Church 
in  a  Christian  State.     Lond.  1649, 

261.  3Iestrezat,  Jean :  Traite  de  I'Eglise.  Geneve,  1649.  The 
author  was  a  learned  minister  of  the  French  Reformed  Church  at  Charenton. 

262.  Sramhall,  John  (Bishop  of  Derry) :  A  fair  Warning  to  take 
heed  of  Scotch  Discipline,  as  being  of  all  others  most  injurious  to  the  civil 
magistrate,  most  oppressive  to  the  subject,  most  pernicious  to  both.  4to. 
Lond.  1649. 

263.  A.  Vindication  of  the  Presbyterial  Government  and  Ministry. 
By  the  Ministers  and  Elders  met  in  Provincial  Assembly.     Nov.  1649. 

1650.  264.  ThorndikCf  Herbert:  Two  Discourses ;  the  one  of  the  Primi- 
tive Government  of  the  Churches,  the  other  of  the  Service  of  God  at  the 
Assemblies  of  the  Church.     Lond.  1650. 

265.  Calami/,  Edmund :  A  Vindication  of  Presbyterian  Govern- 
ment.    Lond.  1650. 

165 1.  266.  Charles  I,:  Reliquiae  Sacr^e  Carolin?e;  or  the  Works  of  King 
Charles  I.  collected  together  and  digested  in  order,  etc.  8vo.  Hague,  165 1. 
BASIAIKA,  Larger  ed.,  2  vols.,  fol.,  Lond.  1662.  Second  ed.,  fol.,  Lond. 
1687,  pp.  611-647  —  Papers  which  passed  between  the  King  and  the 
Divines  which  attended  the  commissioners  of  the  two  Houses  at  the  treaty 

22 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH, 


405 


of  Newport,  concerning  Church  Government.  This  is  the  fuller  and  more 
careful  discussion  of  the  two  held  by  the  king  with  the  Presbyterian 
ministers.  (1648.)  The  first  discussion  (1646)  is  preserved  in  "Papers 
which  passed  between  his  Majesty  and  Mr.  Alexander  Henderson,  concern- 
ing the  Change  of  Church  Government,  at  Newcastle."  Ibid.,  pp.  75-90. 
At  this  the  king  was  unassisted ;  at  the  later,  he  had  the  assistance  of  Usher, 
Sanderson,  Sheldon,  and  Duppa. 
165 1.  267.  Hammond f  Henvij :  Dissertationes  Quatuor,  quibus  Episco- 
patus  Jura  ex  S.  Scriptura  et  Primceva  Antiquitate  adstruuntur,  contra  sen- 
tentiam  D.  Blondelli  et  aliorum.     4to.     Lond.  1 65 1. 

268.  Considerations  of  present  use  touching  the  Danger  resulting 

from   the   Change    of  our   Church    Government.    4to.     Oxford,   1644  and 
1646. 

269.   A  View  of  the  New  Directory,  and  Vindication  of  the  Ancient 

Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England.     4to,     Oxf.  1645. 

270.  Of  the  Power  of  the  Keys;  or  of  binding  and  loosing.     4to. 

Lond.  1647,  and  1651. 

271.  Of  Schism;  or,  a  Defence  of  the  Church  of  England  against 

the  Exceptions  of  the  Romanists.     i2mo.     Lond.  1653. 

272.  HobbeSf  Thomas  :  Leviathan ;  or,  the  Matter,  Form,  and  Power 
of  a  Commonwealth,  Ecclesiastical  and  Civil.  Fol.  Lond.  1651.  Part  III., 
chap,  xxxix.-xliii.  Part  IV.,  chap,  xliv.-xlvii.  Woi'ks,  16  vols.  8vo.  Lond. 
1839,  vol.  iii. 

273.  Feme,  Henry :  Certain  Considerations  of  present  concernment 
touching  the  Reformed  Church  of  England,  against  Ant.  Champney,  Dr.  of 
the  Sorbonne.      i2mo.     Lond.  1 653. 

274.  Gaudenf  tTohn  :  Hieraspistes ;  a  Defence  by  way  of  Apology, 
for  the  Ministry  and  Ministers  of  the  Church  of  England,  etc.  4to.  Lond. 
1653- 

1654.  275.  tfus    Hivlmnn   Ministerii    Evangelici;    or.  The    Divine    Right 
of  the  Gospel  Ministiy ;  published  by  the  Provincial  Assembly  of  London. 

276.  Part  II.:  tfus  Divhium  M.m\?,\.&ic\\  Anglican!;  or,  The  Divine 
Right  of  the  Ministry  of  England.     Lond.  1654. 

277.  Hammond,  Henri/  :  A  Vindication  of  the  Dissertations  con- 
cerning Episcopacy  from  the  Exceptions  of  the  London  Ministers,  in  their 
Jus  Divinum  Ministerii  Evangelici.     4to.     Lond.  1654. 

278.  Answer  to  the  Animadversions  on  the  Dissertations  touching 

Ignatius's  Epistles,  and  the  Episcopacy  in  them  asserted.  4to.  Lond.  1654. 

279.  Wood,  James:  A  little  Stone,  pretended  to  be  out  of  the  Moun- 
tain, tried,  and  found  to  be  a  Counterfeit.  1654.  In  reply  to  "A  Stone  cut 
out  of  the  Mountain :  a  Lecture-Sermon  preached  at  Edinburgh  concerning 
the  matter  of  a  Visible  Church,"  by  Nicholas  Lockyer,  who  was  the  first  to 
introduce  the  Independent  theory  into  Scotland.  (1651.) 

280.  Smith,  Richard:  Brief  Survey  of  the  Lord  of  Derry  (Bram- 
hall)  his  Treatise  of  Schism.     8vo.     Paris,  1655. 

1655.  281.  Feme,  Henry:  A  compendious  Discourse  upon  the  Case  as  it 

23 


406  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

stands  between  the  Church  of  England  and  of  Rome,  on  the  one  hand ;  and 
again,  between  the  same  Church  of  England  and  those  Congregations  which 
have  divided  from  it,  on  the  other.     i2mo.     Lond.  1655. 

1655.  282.  3IoriuilSf  tfohu  :  Commentarius  de  Sacris  Ecclesiae  Ordinationi- 
bus  Secundum  Antiquos  et  Recentiores  Latinos,  Groecos,  Syros,  et  Baby- 
lonios.  Fol.  Paris,  1655.  Best  edit.  Antwerp.  Fol.  1675.  Opera,  5 
vols.     4to.     Romoe,  1756. 

283. Exercitationes  Ecclesiastics  et  Biblicae,  de  Patriarcharum   et 

Primatum  Origine,  etc.  Fol.  Paris,  1669.  Originally  printed  in  4to,  Paris, 
1626. 

1656.  284.  Usher f  James  :  The  Reduction  of  Episcopacy  into  the  Form  of 
Synodical  Government  received  in  the  Ancient  Church.  Lond.  1656.  Re- 
printed, 1660.  This  volume  sets  forth  a  proposal  to  combine  the  advan- 
tages of  the  Episcopal  and  the  Presbyterian  scheme  of  polity.  The  plan 
(tirst  proposed  in  1 641)  contemplated  the  establishment  of  a  parochial  gov- 
ernment in  a  body  to  be  composed  of  the  clergymen,  churchwardens,  etc. ; 
the  institution  of  chorepiscopi,  in  every  rural  deanery,  to  hold  monthly 
assemblies,  who  should  also  be  subject  to  the  power  of  the  diocesan  synod, 
and  this  to  the  provincial  or  national  Convocation.  How  near  this  scheme 
approaches  to  the  constitution  of  our  American  Episcopal  Church  need  not 
be  pointed  out. 

1657.  285.  Heylhlf  Peter  :  EcclesiaVindicata;  or,  The  Church  of  England 
Justified.  I.  In  the  Way  and  Manner  of  her  Reformation.  2.  In  Offi- 
ciating by  a  Public  Liturgy.  3.  Set  Forms  before  Sermons.  4.  Tithes. 
5.  Episcopal  Government.  6.  Ordination  of  Priests  and  Deacons.  4to. 
Lond.  1657. 

286.  Collinges,  tTohn  :  Vindicise  Ministerii  Evangelici  Revindicatae  ; 
or.  The  Preacher  (pretendedly)  sent  back  again,  to  bring  a  better  account 
who  sent  him,  and  learn  his  errand;  by  way  of  reply  to  a  late  book,  called 
Vindicice  Ministerii  Evangelici,  etc.     4to,  pp.  134.     Lond.  1658. 

287.  Uranihall,  tfohn:  The  Consecration  and  Succession  of  Pro- 
testant Bishops  Justified;  the  Bishop  of  Duresme  (Morton)  Vindicated;  and 
that  infamous  fable  of  the  Ordination  at  the  Nag's  Head,  clearly  confuted. 
Lond.  1657.  Works,  1677.  Fol.  Lond.  Also,  5  vols.,  8vo,  Oxford, 
1842-5.     Vol.  3,  pp.  3-241. 

1659.  288.  Stilling  fleet  f  Edward:  Irenicum;  a  Weapon  Salve  for  the 
Church's  Wounds ;  or  the  Divine  Right  of  particular  Forms  of  Church  Gov- 
ernment discussed  and  examined  according  to  the  principles  of  the  law  of 
Nature,  the  positive  laws  of  God,  the  practice  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  primi- 
tive Church,  and  the  judgment  of  Reformed  Divines.  Whereby  a  founda- 
tion is  laid  for  the  Church's  peace,  and  the  accommodation  of  our  present 
differences.  Humbly  tendered  to  consideration.  4to.  Lond.  1 659.  Re- 
printed, in  1662,  with  an  Appendix  :  The  Power  of  Excommunication  in  a 
Christian  State.  8vo.  Philada.  1842.  Works,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  147-439.  Fol. 
Lond.  1 7 10.    ■ 

289.  Pearson,  tfohn:  An  Exposition  of  the  Creed.  4to.  Lond.  1659. 
24 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  4O7 

Enlarged, fol.,  Loud.  1662,  1659,  16S2  — authors  last  edition.  On  Art.  IX., 
The  Holy  Catholic  Church. 
[661.  290.  MraniluUlf  John:  A  just  Vindication  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land from  the  unjust  aspersion  of  criminal  schism.  Wherein  the  nature  of 
criminal  schism,  the  divers  sorts  of  schismatics,  the  liberties  and  privileges 
of  national  Churches,  the  rights  of  sovereign  magistrates,  the  tyranny,  extor- 
tion, and  schism  of  the  Roman  Court,  with  the  grievances,  complaints,  and 
opposition  of  all  princes  and  states  of  the  Roman  communion  of  old,  and 
at  this  very  day,  are  manifested  to  the  view  of  the  world.  8vo.  Lond.  1661. 
In  this  work  proof  is  furnished  of  the  facts  following:  i.  That  the  separa- 
tion of  the  Anglican  Church  from  the  Church  of  Rome  was  not  made  bv 
Protestants,  but  by  Romanists.  2.  That  the  British  Churches  were  ever,  for 
the  first  six  hundred  years,  exempted  from  all  foreign  jurisdiction;  and  had 
both  sufficient  authority  and  sufficient  grounds  to  withdraw  from  Rome. 

291.  A  Replication  to  the  Bishop  of  Chalcedon's  (Rd.  Smith)  Sur- 
vey of  the  Vindication  of  the  Church  of  England  from  criminous  schism, 
clearing  the  English  from  the  aspersion  of  cruelty.     8vo.     Lond.  1666. 

292.  Schism  Guarded  and   Beaten  back  upon  the  Right  Owners. 

8vo.  Lond.  1658.  Showing  that  our  great  controversy  about  papal  power 
is  not  a  Question  of  Faith,  but  of  interest  and  profit,  not  with  the  Church  of 
Rome,  but  with  the  Court  of  Rome ;  wherein  the  true  controversy  doth  con- 
sist, who  were  the  first  innovators,  when  and  where  these  papal  innovations 
first  began  in  England,  with  the  opposition  that  was  made  against  them. 
This  is  an  answer  to  a  book  entitled  Schism  Dispatched  by  S.  IF.  ( Wm.  Ser- 
geant.) Its  leading  object  is  to  prove  that  the  Pope  has  no  legislative  or 
judiciary  power  in  England.  As  the  name  of  Bramhall  is  often  associated 
with  that  of  Laud,  as  a  supporter  of  high  prerogative  in  Church  and  State, 
it  would  seem  but  just  to  his  reputation  to  advert  to  the  moderation  of  his 
views  on  a  point  of  present  interest.  In  giving  orders  to  some  Scottish  pres- 
byters who  had  received  presbyterial  ordination,  he  inserted  in  the  formula 
the  words  following:  /Von  an7iihilantes p7'iores  oj'dines  [si  quos  habuit),  etc. 
"  Not  annulling  his  prior  orders  (if  he  had  any),  nor  determining  the  validity 
or  invalidity  of  the  same;  much  less  condemning  all  the  holy  orders  of  for- 
eign churches,  which  we  leave  to  the  proper  judge;  but  merely  supplying 
whatever,  as  required  by  the  canons  of  the  Anglican  Church,  was  previously 
lacking,  and  providing  for  the  peace  of  the  Church,  that  occasion  of  schism 
may  be  removed,  and  the  consciences  of  the  faithful  satisfied ;  and  that  none 
may  doubt  concerning  his  ordination,  or  question  the  validity  of  his  presby- 
terial acts."  Works.  Fol.  Dublin,  1677.  Lib.  Anglo-Cath.  Theol.,  5  vols, 
8vo.     Oxf.  1842-5. 

293.  Sanderson f  JRoberf  :  The  Divine  Right  of  the  Episcopate  not 
Prejudicial  to  the  Supreme  Authority  of  the  Civil  Ruler.  8vo.  Lond.  1661, 
1673,  1683.  Reprinted  in  Tracts  of  the  Anglican  Fathers,  vol.  i.,  p.  253. 
Otherwise  entitled  :  Episcopacy,  as  established  by  law  in  England,  not 
Prejudicial  to  the  Regal  Power. 

294.  Bernard,  Hichard:  Clavi  Trabales;  or,  Nails  Fastened  by 

25 


408  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

some  great  Masters  of  Assemblies,  confirming  the  King's  Supremacy,  and 
Church  Government  under  Bishops.  I.  Two  Speeches  of  the  late  Lord 
Primate  Ussher's  —  the  one  of  the  King's  Supremacy;  the  other  of  the  Duty 
of  Subjects,  etc.  II.  His  Judgment  and  Practice  in  point  of  Loyalty,  Epis- 
copacy, Liturgy,  and  Constitutions  of  the  Church  of  England.  III.  Mr. 
Hooker's  Judgment  of  the  King's  Power  in  Matters  of  Religion,  Advance- 
ment of  Bishops,  etc.  IV.  Bishop  Andrews  of  Church  Government,  etc. 
V.  A  Letter  of  Dr.  Hadrian  Saravia's,  of  the  like  Subjects.  Unto  which  is 
added  a  Seraion  of  Regal  PoM'er  and  the  Novelty  of  the  Doctrine  of  Resist- 
ance. With  a  Preface  by  Bishop  Sanderson.  Edited  by  Dr.  Rich.  Bernard. 
Lond.  1 66 1. 
1662.  295.  Hooker,  JRicJuird :  0(  the  Laws  of  Ecclesiastical  Pohty  — 
the  Seventh  Book,  now  first  published,  in  a  volume  entitled,  The  Works 
of  Mr.  Rd.  Hooker  —  vindicating  the  Church  of  England  as  truly  Christian 
and  duly  reformed.  In  Eight  Books  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity.  Now  com- 
pleted, as  with  the  Sixth  and  Eighth,  so  with  the  Seventh,  etc.,  out  of  his 
own  manuscripts,  never  before  published.  With  an  account  of  his  life,  etc. 
By  Dr.  John  Gauden,  now  Bishop  of  Exeter,  etc.     Folio.     Lond.  1662. 

296.  Hildebrauilf  tfoachiin:  Exercitationes  de  Episcopis.  Helmst. 
4to.     1662.     Ed.  2,  1700. 

297.  Owen,  tToJlu:  A  Discourse  concerning  Liturgies,  and  their  im- 
position.    Lond.  1662. 

298.  Diirelf  tTohll  :  A  View  of  the  Government  and  Public  Worship 
of  God  in  the  Refomied  Churches  beyond  the  Seas ;  wherein  is  showed 
their  conformity  and  agreement  with  the  Church  of  England.  4to.  Lond. 
1662.  Abridged,  8vo,  Lond.  1705.  This  book  excited  a  bitter  controversy. 
In  reply  to  his  assailants,  the  author,  seven  years  later,  published  the  work 
next  named. 

299.  A  Vindication  of  the  Church  of  England  against  the  unjust 

and  impudent  Accusations  of  the  Schismatics.  410.  Lond.  1669.  Pub- 
lished also  in  Latin :  Sanctse  Ecclesise  Anglicanse  adversus  iniquas  atque 
inverecundas  Schismaticorum  Criminationes,  Vindicice. 

300.  HicJvinaUf  Henry:  Apologia  pro  Ministris  in  Anglia  (vulgo) 
Nonconformistis,  anno  1662,  Aug.  24  die,  Bartholomaeo  dicto,  ejectis. 
Adversus  argutiolas  putidasque  calumnias  Durelli,  etc.  Printed  probably 
at  Leyden,  1664. 

301.  Bonasus  Vapulans ;  or  some   Castigations  given  to  Mr.  John 

Durel  for  fouling  himself  and  others  in  his  English  and  Latin  book.  Svo. 
Lond.  1672.  Reprinted,  in  1676,  under  the  title,  The  Nonconformists  Vin- 
dicated from  the  Abuses  put  upon  them  by  Mr.  Durel  and  Mr.  Scrivener. 
The  Vindicice  was  answered  also  in  the  volume  next  named. 

302.  Dumoulhlf  Louis  :  Patronus  bonse  Fidei  in  causa  Puritanorum, 
contra  Hierarchos  Anglos,  etc.  Svo.  Lond.  1672.  Durel's  View,  etc., 
which  occasioned  this  embittered  dispute,  was  written  to  show  the  agree- 
ment subsisting  between  the  foreign  Reformed  Churches  and  the  Church  of 
England,  in  regard  to  ceremonies,  subordination  of  pastors,  forais  of  prayer, 

26 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  4O9 

holy-days,  fast-days,  magnificent  churches,  organs,  surplice,  church-orna- 
ments, cross  in  baptism,  kneeling  at  communion,  etc.  An  Appendix  con- 
tains a  letter  to  the  author  from  the  famous  Peter  Du  Moulin,  stating  that, 
in  1 65 1,  Archbishop  Usher  informed  the  writer  that  David  Blondel  had  con- 
cluded his  Apologia  pro  Sententia  Hicronymi  with  words  to  this  effect:  "  By 
all  that  we  have  said  to  assert  the  rights  of  the  Presljytery,  we  do  not  intend 
to  invalidate  the  ancient  and  apostolical  constitution  of  Episcopal  pre-emi- 
nence. But  we  believe  that  wheresoever  it  is  established  conformably  to 
the  ancient  canons,  it  must  be  carefully  preserved ;  and  wheresoever  by 
some  heat  of  contention,  or  otherwise,  it  hath  been  put  down,  or  violated, 
it  ought  to  be  reverently  restored."  But  Blondel's  book  having  been  written 
at  the  instance  of  the  Westminster  Assembly,  the  agents  of  that  body,  then 
at  Paris,  prevailed  upon  the  author  to  suppress  the  concluding  passage  above 
quoted,  and  hence  it  does  not  appear  in  the  published  work.  (Biog.  Brit., 

DUREL.) 

1662.  303.  JLeivgdV :  Erastus  Senior.  i2mo.  Lond.  1662.  Against  the 
Anglican  form  of  ordination. 

303  a.  JDe  JSIat'ca  :  De  Concordia  Sacerdotii  et  Imperii,     Paris,  1663. 

1668.  304.  Sanderson,  Robert:  A  Discourse  concerning  the  Church  in 
these  particulars  :  i.  Concerning  the  Visibility  of  the  True  Church.  2.  Con- 
cerning the  Church  of  Rome,  etc.     4to.     Lond.  1668. 

305.  Clfiudil  Fonteji  (a  pseudonym  for  Jacques  Boileau)  :  De 
antique  Presbyterorum  Jure  in  regimine  Ecclesiae.  8vo.  Taurin.  1668. 
2d  ed.  1678.  The  author  was  "a  celebrated  theologian  of  the  Parisian 
school." 

306.  Philippi  Moveniif  Reipublicre  Christianse  Libri  duo,  tractantes 
de  variis  hominum  statibus,  gradibus,  officiis,  et  functionibus  in  Ecclesia 
Christi.     4to.     Antw.  1668. 

1669.  307.  Scrivener^  3Iattheiv :  Actio  in  Schismaticos  Anglicanos,  etc. 
4to.    Lond.  1669.    Printed  at  the  end  of  Durel's  Sanctee  Eccles.  Anglic,  etc. 

1670.  308.  Jlorton,  Thomas:  KniaKonoi  Amaro'XiKOi ;  or.  The  Episcopacy  of 
the  Church  of  England  Justified,  etc.     8vo.     Lond.  1670. 

309.  Parker,  Samuel :  A  Discourse  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity ; 
wherein  the  authority  of  the  civil  magistrate  over  the  consciences  of  sub- 
jects in  matters  of  external  religion  is  asserted,  and  the  mischiefs  and  incon- 
veniences of  toleration  are  represented,  and  all  pretences  pleaded  in  behalf 
of  liberty  of  conscience  are  fully  answered,  8vo,  pp.  326.  Lond.  1670. 
Without  the  author's  name. 

310.  Owen,  flohn:  Truth  and  Innocence  Vindicated;  in  a  Survey  of 
a  Discourse  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  etc.  8vo,  pp.  410.  Lond.  1670,  In 
reply  to  Parker,  (afterward,  1686,  Bishop  of  Oxford,)  who  had  represented 
the  views  of  the  Nonconformists  as  incompatible  with  the  security  of  the 
government,  for  which  he  claimed  the  most  exorbitant  powers  in  all  things, 
both  civil  and  religious, 

311.  Parker,  Samuel:  A  Defence  and  Continuation  of  the  Ecclesi- 
astical Polity,     8vo,     Lond,  1 67 1.     In  rejoinder  to  Owen. 

27 


410  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

1672,  312.  Parlcer,  Samuel :  A  Preface  to  a  posthumous  work  of  Archbishop 
Bramhall,  entitled,  A  Vindication  of  himself  and  the  Episcopal  Clergy  from 
the  Presbyterian  Charge  of  Popery,  as  it  is  managed  by  Mr.  Baxter  in  his 
Treatise  of  the  Grotian  Religion.     4to.     Lond.  1672. 

313.  3Iarvellf  Andrew:  The  Rehearsal  Transprosed;  or,  Animad- 
versions upon  a  late  book,  entitled,  A  Preface,  showing  what  grounds  there 
are  of  fears  and  jealousies  of  Popery.  i2mo.  Lond.  1672.  Without 
author's  name.  In  this  witty  piece  of  satire,  Parker  figures  under  the  char- 
acter of  Bayes,  borrowed  from  The  Rehearsal,  a  popular  farce,  ascribed  to 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham  (1671).  Hence  the  title.  The  Rehearsal  Trans- 
prosed —  i.e.,  turned  out  of  Verse  into  Prose,  as  the  author  himself  explains 
it:  "  Putting  verse  into  prose  should  be  called  transprosingy^     Act  i. 

314.  Parker,  Samuel:  A  Reproof  of  the  Rehearsal  Transprosed,  in 
a  Discourse  to  its  author.     8vo.     Lond.  1673. 

315.  Mar  veil,  AndreiV  :  The  Rehearsal  Transprosed :  The  Second 
Part.      i2mo.     Lond.  1673. 

316.  Cave,  IVilllarti:  Primitive  Christianity ;  or,  the  Religion  of  the 
ancient  Christians  in  the  first  ages  of  the  Gospel.  8vo.  Lond.  1672.  Re- 
printed with  the  Dissertation  on  the  Government  of  the  Ancient  Church,  in 
I  vol.     8vo.     Lond.  1849. 

1675.  317.  Croft,  Herbert:  The  Naked  Truth;  or,  The  true  State  of  the 
Primitive  Church.  By  an  humble  Moderator.  4to.  Lond.  1675.  2d  ed., 
fol.,  1680.  Frequently  reprinted.  Written  to  show  that  differences  among 
Protestants  are  all  about  matters  non-essential,  and  ought  to  be  adjusted  in 
the  interest  of  peace  and  unity.  The  names  of  the  three  publications  in 
reply  to  it  —  Nos.  318,  320,  321  — are  preserved. 

318.  Animadversions  on  a  Pamphlet  called  The  Naked  Truth,  etc. 
4to.  Lond.  1676.  Written  in  a  tone  of  excessive  bitterness.  This  was 
replied  to  in  the  same  strain,  but  with  superior  vivacity  and  wit,  in  the  book 
next  named. 

319.  3Iarvell,  AndreiV  :  Mr.  Smirke,  or  the  Divine  in  Mode;  being 
certain  annotations  upon  the  Animadversions,  written  by  Dr.  F.  Turner, 
etc.,  with  a  short  historical  Essay  concerning  Genei"al  Councils,  Creeds,  and 
Impositions  in  matters  of  Religion.  4to.  Lond.  1676.  Reprinted  in  16S0, 
'87,  '89,  etc. 

320.  Leoc  Talionis  ;  or,  the  Author  of  the  Naked  Truth  stripped  naked. 
4to.  Lond.  1676.  Ascribed  to  Bishop  Gunning,  but  the  authorship  is 
uncertain. 

321.  A  3Iodest  Survey  of  the  most  considerable  things  in  a  Dis- 
course lately  published,  entitled.  The  Naked  Truth.  4to.  Lond.  1676. 
Ascribed  to  Bishop  Burnet,  on  authority  somewhat  uncertain. 

322.  Voetius,  Gisbert:  Politica  Ecclesiastica.  4  vols.  4to.  Amstelo- 
dami,  1663-76.  This  work  displays  "immense  theological  research,  as  well 
as  intellectual  power.     It  discusses,  in  an  exhaustive  way,  almost  all  the 

*  The  dictionaries  —  Richardson,  Webster,  Worcester  —  give  the  converse  definition. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  4II 

points  connected  with  the  power  of  the  Church,  etc.,  as  well  as  the  question 
of  Church  government."   [Batmermajt.) 

1677.  323.  Burnet,  Gilbert :  A  Vindication-  of  the  Ordinations  of  the 
Church  of  England.  In  which  it  is  demonstrated.Aat  all  the  essentials  of 
ordination,  according  to  the  practice  of  the  Primitive  and  Greek  Churches, 
are  still  retained  in  our  Church."    8vo.     Lond.  1677. 

324.  Ziegler,  Caspar:  De  Diaconis  et  Diaconissis  veteris  Ecclesire. 
4to.     Viterb.  1678. 

'679-  325-  Dodivell,  Henry  :  Separation  of  Churches  from  Episcopal  Gov- 
ernment, as  practised  by  the  present  Nonconformists,  proved  schismatical, 
etc.     4to.     Lond.  1679. 

:68o.  326.  Baxter,  Richard:  True  and  only  Way  of  Concord  of  all  Chris- 
tian Churches.     Lond.  1680. 

327.  Of  an  Universal  Church  Supremacy.     Lond.  1680. 

328.  Bodivell,  Henry  :  A  Reply  to  Mr.  Baxter's  pretended  Confuta- 
tion.    Lond.  1 68 1. 

329.  Barroiv,  Isaac:  A  Treatise  of  the  Pope's  Supremacy;  and  a 
Discourse  concerning  the  Unity  of  the  Church,  4to.  Lond.  1680.  Edited 
by  Dr.  Tillotson,  three  years  after  the  author's  death. 

330.  Clarkson,  David:  Primitive  Episcopacy ;  evincing  from  Scrip- 
ture and  ancient  records,  that  a  bishop  in  the  Apostles'  times,  and  for  the 
space  of  the  first  three  centuries  of  the  Gospel  Church,  was  no  more  than  a 
pastor  to  one  single  church.  8vo.  Lond.  1680.  Reprinted  by  the  Wyclifte 
Soc,  8vo,  Lond.  1846. 

331.  Stilling  fleet,  JEdtvard:  Sermon  on  the  Mischief  of  Separa- 
tion. (Philip,  iii.  16.)  Preached  at  Guildhall,  before  the  magistrates  and 
judges,  May  11,  1680. 

332.  Owen,  John:  A  brief  Vindication  of  the  Nonconformists  from 
the  Charge  of  Schism.  4to.  Pp.  56.  Lond.  1680.  In  reply  to  Stilling- 
fleet's  Sermon. 

ZZ3-  Baxter,  Bichard:  A  Second  true  Defence  of  mere  Noncon- 
formists.    Lond.  1680. 

334-  A  Treatise  of  Episcopacy.     Lond.  1680. 

335-  A  Search  for  the  English  Schismatic.     1680.     These  tracts  are 

all  marked  by  the  author's  characteristic  sharpness. 

336.  Howe,  fJohn:  A  Letter  written  out  of  the  countr)'  to  a  person 
of  quality  in  the  city,  who  took  offence  at  the  late  Sermon  of  Dr.  Stilling- 
tleet.  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  before  the  Lord  Mayor.     Lond.  1680. 

ZZ7-  Alsojy,  Vincent:  Mischief  of  Imposition.     1680. 

ZZ^-  Barrett,  *TosepJi:  The  Rector  of  Sutton  (Stillingfleet's  parish 
when  he  published  the  Irenicum)  committed  with  the  Dean  of  St.  Paul's; 
or,  a  Defence  of  Dr.  S.'s  Irenicum  against  the  late  Sermon.     Lond.  1680. 

339.  Bule,   Gilbert:    An  Answer  to  Edw.  Stillingfleet's    Irenicum. 
Svo.     Lond.  1680. 
681.      340.  Stilling  fleet,  Edward:  The  Unreasonableness  of  Separation ; 
or  an  impartial  account  of  the  history,  nature,  and  pleas  of  the  present 

29 


412  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

Separation  from  the  communion  of  the  Church  of  England,  etc.  4to.  Lond. 
i68i. 
1681.      341.   Owen,  tTohn  :  An  Answer  to  the  Unreasonableness  of  Separa- 
tion, and  a  Defence  of  the  Vindication  of  the  Nonconformists  from  the  guilt 
of  Schism,     4to.     Lond.  1681. 

342.  An  Inquiry  into  the  original  Nature,  Institutions,  Power,  Order, 

and  Communion  of  Evangelical  Churches.     4to.     Lond.  1681.     Nos.  341, 
342  were  published  in  i  vol. 

343.  ClarJtSOn,  Thomas:  No  Evidence  of  Diocesan  Episcopacy  in 
Primitive  Times.     4to.     Lond.  1 681. 

344.  Sherlock f  William:  A  Discourse  about  Church-Unity ;  being 
a  defence  of  Dr.  Stillingfleet's  Unreasonableness  of  Separation.  In  answer 
to  several  late  pamphlets;  but  principally  to  Dr.  Owen  and  Mr,  Baxter. 
4to.     Lond.  1 68 1,     Without  author's  name. 

345.  A  Continuation  and  Vindication  of  the  Defence  of  Dr,  Stilling- 
fleet's Unreasonableness  of  Separation.     4to.     Lond.  1682. 

346.  ZimmetnnatiUf  3Iatthew  :  De  Presbyteris  et  Presbyterissis, 
4to,     Annaberg,  168 1. 

347.  31aiiricef  Henry  :  A  Vindication  of  the  Primitive  Church  and 
Diocesan  Episcopacy ;  in  answer  to  Mr,  Baxter's  Histoiy  of  Bishops.  8vo. 
Lond,  1682, 

\  348.  Haxter,  Richard  :  Vindication  of  the  Church  of  England  in 
her  Rites  and  Ceremonies,  and  Discipline,  and  Church  Orders,  As  faith- 
fully taken  out  of  his  own  writings,  etc.  4to,  Lond,  1682.  An  anonymous 
publication, 

349-  Hay  well,  William:  EvangeHcal  Unity.  8vo,  Lond.  1682, 
The  author  also  of  A/eans  of  Union.  4to.  Lond.  1681. 
16^3-  350.  Claude,  John  :  An  Historical  Defence  of  the  Reformation,  in 
answer  to  a  book  entitled,  Just  Prejudices  against  the  Calvinists,  4to. 
Lond,  1683,  The  French  original  appeared  in  the  same  year,  at  Amster- 
dam. "  The  Fourth  Part  is  especially  worthy  of  careful  study,"  Reprinted 
in  2  vols.,  8vo,  Lond.  1 81 5. 

351.  Dodtvell,  Henry:  A  Discourse  concei-ning  the  one  Altar  and 
the  one  Priesthood  insisted  on  by  the  Ancients  in  their  Disputes  against 
Schism.     8vo.     Lond.  1683. 

352.  Cave,  William:  A  Dissertation  concerning  the  Government  of  the 
Ancient  Church  by  Bishops,  Metropolitans,  and  Patriarchs.  4to.  Lond.  1683. 

353.  Parker,  Samuel:  An  Account  of  the  Government  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  for  the  first  six  hundred  years,  particularly  showing :  I.  The 
Apostolical  Practice  of  Diocesan  and  Metropolitical  Episcopacy.  II.  The 
Usurpation  of  Patriarchal  and  Papal  Authority,  III.  The  War  of  two  hun- 
dred years  between  the  Bishops  of  Rome  and  Constantinople  for  universal 
Supremacy.     8vo.     Lond.  1 683. 

354-  Mocket,  Hichard:  Tractalus  de  Politia  Ecclesire  Anglican^, 
Fol.  Lond.  1616.  2d  ed.,  1677,  4to;  3d  ed,,  cui  accesserunt  Richardi 
Zouch  Descriptio  Juris  etjudicii  Ecclesiastici.  8vo.  1683.  4th  ed.,  1705, 8vo, 

30 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 


413 


.Tovern- 


1684.  355.  Lloyd,  William  :  An  Historical  Account  of  Church  G 
ment  as  it  was  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  when  they  first  received  the 
Christian  Religion.  Second  edition.  8vo.  Lond.  1684.  Defended  against 
the  exceptions  of  Sir  George  Mackenzie  by  Bishop  Stillingfleet  in  his  Ori- 
gines  Britannicae,  with  which  work  it  was  reprinted,  in  2  vols.,  8vo,  Oxf. 
1842,  with  Notes,  by  T.  P.  Pantin. 

356.  Baxter,  Richard:  Whether  Parish  Congregations  be  true 
Christian  Churches.     4to.     Lond.  1684. 

357-  Forrester,  Thomas:  Rectius  Instruendum ;  containing  a  Con- 
futation of  Episcopacy,  and  Vindication  of  the  Truth  owned  by  the  true  Pro- 
testant and  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland.  Edinb.  1684.  The  author 
was  principal  of  St.  Mar)''s  College,  St.  Andrews. 

1685.  358.  DodlveU,  Henry  :  De  Jure  Laicorum  sacerdotale,  ex  sententia 
Tertulliani,  aliorumque  veterum  Dissertatio,  etc.     8vo.     Lond.  1685. 

1686.  359.  Dwpin,  Louis  ElUes  :  De  antiqua  Ecclesise  disciplina  Disserta- 
tiones  historicas.  4to.  Paris,  1686.  This  learned  work  treats,  from  the  Gal- 
ilean point  of  view,  of  the  Church  questions  of  leading  interest  in  the  author's 
day  :  Of  Patriarchs  and  Metropolitans ;  of  the  form  of  Ecclesiastical  Trials 
and  Appeals ;  of  Excommunication,  its  ground  in  the  Ancient  Church ;  of 
the  Primacy  of  the  Roman  Pontiff;  proof  that  the  Judginent  of  the  Pope 
is  not  unalterable ;  the  Authority  of  a  General  Council  superior  to  that  of 
the  Roman  Pontiff;  neither  the  Church  nor  the  Pope  has  authority  over 
kings. 

360.  Ziegler,  Caspar:  De  Episcopis.    4to.    Jena,  1686. 

1687.  361.  Piiffendorf,  Samuel :  De  habitu  Religionis  Christiance  ad  vitam 
civilem.  Bremae,  1687.  This  is  a  classical  work  in  the  controversy  con- 
cerning the  relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State. 

362.  Bellarmine's  Notes  of  the  Church  Examined  and  Refuted.  8vo. 
Lond.  1687.  Republished  in  1738,  in  Vol.  T.  of  Bishop  Gibson's  Preserva- 
tive against  Popery,  3  vols.,fol.,  and  18  vols.,  i2mo,  Lond.  1849.  Reprinted 
in  1840,  Lond.,  8vo.  A  Collection  of  Dissertations,  seventeen  in  number, 
by  fifteen  divines  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  among  them  Archbishop 
Tenison,  Bishops  Kidder,  Patrick,  etc.,  Drs.  Sherlock,  Clagget,  Scott,  etc. 

363-  -Barroi«^,  Js«ac  ;  De  Potestate  Clavium.  De  Regimine  Episco- 
pali.  Treatises  among  the  author's  Opitscula  in  his  collected  works.  Vol. 
IV.,  fol.,  Lond.  1687;  and  8vo,  Edinb.  1841. 

1688.  364.  Bossiiet,  Jacques  Benir/ne:  Histoire  des  Variations  des 
Eglises  Protestantes.  Book  XV.  Paris,  1688.  Eng.  Iransl.,  Dublin, 
1836. 

364  a. Defensio  declarationis  celeberrimae  quam  de  potestate  eccle- 

siastica  sanxit  clerus  Gallicanus.     2  vols.,  4to.     I^uxemb.  1730. 

365.  Pefwson,  John :  Opera  posthuma  ;  Dissertationes  duce  de  serie 
et  de  successione  primorum  Romae  Episcoporum. 

366.  Ordo  Episcopalis  et  Apostolicus. 

367.  Ordinandi  potestas  soils  competit  Episcopis. 

368.  Ordinatio  Anglicana  complet  totam  essentiam  extemse  Voca- 


414  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

tionis  ad  Ministerium.  Nos.  365-8  reprinted  in  Minor  Theol.  Works,  2 
vols.,  8vo,  Oxf.  1844. 

1688.  369.  Tnrretin€f  Francis :  Institulio  Theologix  Elenchticx.  Pars 
III.,  Locus  xviii.,  De  Ecclesia,  Quest,  i.-xxxiv. 

370.  OiveUf  John:  The  true  Nature  of  a  Gospel  Church  and  its  Gov- 
ernment. 4to.  Lond.  1688.  This  is  the  Second  Part  of  the /^(^z^zry,  etc., 
published  in  168 1. 

371.  Sayivell,  William:  The  Reformation  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land Justified.     4to.     Camb.  1688. 

372.  Prideaux,  HunipJirey :  The  Validity  of  the  Orders  of  the 
Church  of  England  made  out  against  the  Objections  of  the  Romanists.  4to. 
Lond.  1688.     Second  ed.  corrected,  8vo,  Lond.  17 16. 

373.  Rule,  Gilbert :  A  rational  Defence  of  Nonconfoi-mity.  4to. 
Edinb.  1688.     In  reply  to  Stillingfleet. 

374.  A  Vindication  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.     4to.    Edinb.  1691. 

375.  A  Defence  of  the  Vindication,  etc.     4to.     1694. 

1689.  376.  C^aJ'/c^Ofi,  X)a'i;i(?;  Discourse  concerning  Liturgies.  8vo.  Lond. 
1689. 

377.  JParhf  Robert  :  The  Rights  and  Liberties  of  the  Church  asserted. 
8vo.     Edinb.  1689, 

378.  DoillV ell,  Henry  :  Dissertationes  in  Irenseum,  etc.  8vo.  Oxon. 
1689. 

379.  Dissertationes  Cyprianicae.     Folio.     Lond.     Sine  anno. 

380.  De  Jure  Laicorum  sacerdotale,  ex  sententia  Tertulliani  alio- 

nimque  veterum  Dissertatio.     8vo.     Lond.  1685. 

381.  De  nupero  Schismate  Anglican©  paroenesis  ad  Exteros,  tarn 

reformatos  quam  etiam  pontificios,  qua,  jura  Episcoporum  Vetera,  eorun- 
demque  a  magistratu  seculari  independentia  omnibus  asserenda  commen- 
dantur.     8vo.     Lond.  1704, 

1690.  382.  Overall,  John  :  Convocation-Book,  1606,  concerning  the  Gov- 
ernment of  God's  Catholic  Church,  and  the  Kingdoms  of  the  whole  World. 
4to.  Lond.  1690.  Reprinted  in  Library  of  Anglo-Catholic  Theology,  8vo, 
Oxf.  1844.  This  work  was  approved  by  the  Convocations  of  Canterbury 
and  York ;  *'  and  might  therefore  be  considered  as  an  authoritative  exposi- 
tion of  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England." 

1691.  383.  King,  Sir  JPetev  :  An  Inquiry  into  the  Constitution,  Discipline, 
Unity,  and  Worship  of  the  Primitive  Church  that  flourished  within  the  first 
three  hundred  years  after  Christ.  Faithfully  collected  out  of  the  extant 
writings  of  those  ages.  Part  I.,  8vo,  Lond.  1691.  Part  II.,  soon  after. 
To  this  book  John  Wesley  professed  himself  indebted,  as  early  as  1745,  for 
his  settled  conviction  that  the  episcopate  is  not  a  distinct  order,  but  only  a 
distinct  office  in  the  Christian  ministry ;  that  bishops  and  presbyters  are  of 
the  same  order,  and  have  essentially  the  same  prerogatives ;  the  bishop  being 
only  prwius  inter  pares  —  a  presiding  officer.     (^Stevens,  Hist.  Meth.,  vol.  i., 

p.  314.) 

384.  Maurice,  Henry:    A   Defence   of  Diocesan   Episcopacy,  in 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  4I5 

answer  to  a  book  of  Mr.  David  Clarkson,  entitled  Primitive  Episcopacy. 
8vo.     Lond.  1691.     2d  ed.,  1709. 

385.  Thotnasshi,  Louis:  Ancienne  et  Nouvelle  Discipline  de 
I'Eglise  touchant  les  benefices  et  les  beneficiers.  Translated  by  the  author 
into  Latin :  Vetus  et  Nova  Ecclesiie  Disciplina  circa  beneficia  et  beneficia- 
rios,  etc.  3  vols.  Fol.  Paris,  1691.  Each  volume  is  divided  into  three 
parts.  Vol.  I.  treats,  l,  De  primo  cleri  ordine;  2,  De  secundo  cleri  oi-dine ; 
3,  De  clericorum  et  monachorum  congregationibus,"^  Vol.  11.  treats  of  the 
calling  and  ordination  of  clergymen;  the  election,  confirmation,  cession, 
resignation,  and  translation  of  bishops ;  of  pluralities ;  councils,  visitations, 
etc.  Vol.  in.  of  the  Church's  temporalities,  etc.  This  work,  which  has 
been  often  reprinted,  is  still  regarded  as  among  the  most  valuable  in  its 
department. 

386.  Baxter f  Hichard:  Of  National  Churches;  their  Description, 
Institution,  Use,  Preservation,  Maladies,  and  Cure.     Lond.  1 69 1. 

387.  Burscough,  Hohert:  A  Treatise  of  Church  Government; 
occasioned  by  some  letters  lately  printed,  etc.     8vo.     Lond.  1692. 

388.  Ferguson,  Ja^nes:  A  brief  Refutation  of  the  Errors  of  Tolera- 
tion, Erastianism,  Independency,  and  Separation.  8vo.  Edinb.  1692,  '98. 
Written  in  1652. 

389.  ^lUhoume,  Luize:  A  Legacy  to  the  Church  of  England,  vindi- 
cating her  Orders  from  the  Objections  of  Papists  and  Dissenters.  8vo.  Lond. 
1692.     New  ed.,  in  2  vols.,  8vo,  Lond.  1726. 

390.  Leighton,  JRohert:  A  modest  Defence  of  Moderate  Episcopacy 
as  established  in  Scotland  at  the  Restoration  of  King  Charles  II. 

391.  King  IVilliani:  A  Discourse  concerning  the  Inventions  of  Men 
in  the  Worship  of  God.  Dublin,  1694;  Lond.  1697;  Northampton,  1840, 
l6mo. 

392.  JSogsCf  Jose2)h:  Remarks  on  a  late  Discourse  concerning  the 
Inventions  of  Men  in  the  Worship  of  God.     8vo.     Lond.  1694-5. 

393.  Owen,  James:  A  Plea  for  Scripture  Ordination,  or  Ten  Argu- 
ments from  Scripture  and  Antiquity,  proving  ordination  by  presbyters  with- 
out bishops  to  be  valid.     i2mo.     Lond.  1694. 

394.  Sage,  *Tolin :  The  Fundamental  Charter  of  Presbytery  Examined 
and  Disproved.     8vo.     Lond.  1695. 

395.  The  Principles  of  the  Cyprianic  Age  with  regard  to  Episcopal 

Power  and  Jurisdiction  asserted  and  recommended  from  the  genuine  writings 
of  St.  Cyprian  himself,  etc.  8vo.  Lond.  1695.  Both  the  above  without 
the  author's  name.    Reprinted  by  the  Spottiswood  Soc,  8vo,  Lond.  1844-47. 

396.  Utile,  Gilbert:  The  Cyprianic  Bishop  Examined,  and  found 
not  to.be  a  Diocesan.     4to.     1696. 

397.  The  good  Old  Way  Defended,      4to.      1697.     Asserting  the 

Divine  Right  of  Presbyteiy. 

398.  Representation  of  Presbyterian  Government, 

399.  Vltringa,  Camjwglns:  De  Synagoga  Vetere,  Libri  tres,  etc.,  2 

*  "  Ordinationrbus,"  as  Jacobson,  in  Hertzog,  gives  it. 

33 


4l6  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

vols.  4to.  Francq.  1696.  Aims  to  show  that  the  form  of  government  and 
ministry  which  obtained  in  the  Synagogue  was  transferred  to  the  Christian 
Church.   [See  No.  670.] 

1696.  400.  Doctrina    Christians   Religionis    per   aphorismos   summatim 

descripta.  9  vols.  4to.  Vol.  IX.  treats  of  the  Church  —  De  Ecclesioe  attri- 
butis,  notis,  capite,  ministris,  ordinatione,  decimis,  regimine,  libris  symboli- 
cis,  conciliis. 

1697.  404.  flaniesoflf  William:  Nazianzeni  Querela  et  Votum  Justum: 
The  Fundamentals  of  the  Hierarchy  Examined  and  Disproved.  Jameson 
was  lecturer  on  History  in  the  University  of  Glasgow. 

1699.  405.  Sennet f  Thomas:  An  Answer  to  the  Dissenters'  Pleas  for 
Separation ;  or,  An  Abridgment  of  the  Collection  of  Cases  and  other  Dis- 
courses to  recover  Dissenters  to  the  Communion  of  the  Church  of  England. 
8vo.     Lond.  1699.     3d  ed.,  1701. 

406.  IBurscoughf  Mobert:  A  Discourse  of  Schism;  addressed  to 
those  Dissenters  who  conformed  before  the  toleration,  and  have  since  with- 
drawn themselves,  etc.     8vo.     Lond.  1699. 

407.  A  Letter  in  answer  to  his  Discourse  of  Schism.     8vo.     Lond. 

1700. 

408.  A  Vindication  of  a  Discourse  of  Schism;  in  answer  to  a  Letter 

lately  published  against  it.     8vo.     Lond.  1701. 

409.  Forrester f  Thomas:  The  Hierarchical  Bishop's  Claim  to  a 
Divine  Right  tried  at  the  Scripture  Bar,  (in  answer  to  three  authors,  two  of 
them  bishops.)  Edinb.  1699.  The  authors  referred  to  were  Dr.  Scott,  Dr. 
Monro,  and  Mr.  Honeyman. 

1 701 .     410.  Sage^  John  :  A  Vindication  of  the  Principles  of  the  Cyprianic  Age ; 

a  Reply  to  Gilbert  Rule's  Cyprianic  Bishop  Examined.  4to.  Lond,  1701. 
410  a.   Van  Espen,  Zeger  Bernliard:  Jus  Ecclesiasticum  Uni- 

versum.  Fol.  Colon,  Agripp.  1702,  In  support  of  The  Episcopal  System. 
1703.      411,  Hoadhjf   Benjamin:    Reasonableness    of  Conformity  to    the 

Church  of  England,  represented  to  the  Dissenting  Ministers.     In  two  parts. 

8vo,     Lond.  1703,      Works,  fol.,  vol.  i.,  pp.  183-299. 

412.  A  Persuasive  to  lay  Conformity,  etc.     8vo.     Lond,  1704. 

413.  A  serious  Admonition  to  Mr.  Calamy,  occasioned  by  the  first 

part  of  his  Defence  of  Moderate  Nonconformity.     8vo.     Lond.  1705. 

414.  A  Defence  of  the  Reasonableness  of  Conformity,  in  answer  to 

Calamy.     8vo.     Lond.  1705. 

415.  A  brief  Defence  of  Episcopal  Ordination.     With  a  Reply  to 

Calamy.  8vo.  Lond.  1708.  The  above  five  tracts,  with  others,  were  reprinted 
in  one  vol.,  8vo.,  Lond,  1715.    Works,  fol,,  vol.  i.,  pp.  395-528,  Lond.  1773. 

416.  Calamy f  Edmund:  A  Defence  of  Moderate  Nonconformfty. 
In  answer  to  Olyfite  and  Hoadly.     3  vols.     8vo.     Lond.  1703-5. 

1704  417.  Siirsconghf  Robert:  A  Discourse  of  the  Unity  of  the  Church, 
etc.     8vo.     Exeter,  1704. 

418.  A  Vindication  of  the  XXIII.  Article   from  Bishop  Burnet's 

Exposition  of  it.     Ascribed  also  to  Trelawney. 

34 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  41/ 

705.  419.  fTamesotlf    WlllUim  :    Cyprianus    Isotimus  or  Idager;    J.  S.'s 
Vindication  of  his  Principles  of  the  Cyprianic  Age  confuted.     1705. 

420.  CuldeVf  Robert:  The  Divine  Right  of  Episcopacy.  8vo.  Edinb. 

1705- 

421.  The  Lawfuhiess  and  Expediency  of  Set  Forms  of  Prayer.  8vo. 

1706. 

422.  Miscellany  Numbers.    8vo.     1713.     In  defence  of  Episcopacy, 

Liturgy,  etc. 

423.  SuddeilSf  John  Fred.  :  Exercitatio  de  Origine  et  Potestate 
Episcoporum.  4to.  Jena,  1705.  In  reply  to  Dodvvell's  Separation  of 
Churches,  etc. 

424.  JBldlf  George:  The  Corruptions  of  the  Church  of  Rome  in  rela- 
tion to  Ecclesiastical  Government,  the  Rule  of  Faith,  and  Form  of  Divine 
Worship.     In  answer  to  Bossuet's  Queries.     Lond.  1705. 

706.  425.  Forrester f  Thomas:  Causa  Episcopatus  Hierarchici  lucifuga. 
1706.     In  reply  to  Bishop  Sage. 

426.  Thldal,  3Iatfheiv:  The  Rights  of  the  Christian  Church  As- 
serted against  the  Romish  and  all  other  Priests  who  claim  an  independent 
power  over  it,  etc.     Svo.     Lond.  1706. 

427.  IVottoUf  If'illiani:  The  Rights  of  the  Clergy  in  the  Christian 
Church  asserted.  In  which  the  principles  of  a  late  book,  entitled  The 
Rights  of  the  Christian  Church  asserted,  are  examined.  A  Sermon  on  2 
Tim  ii.  2.     Lond.  1706. 

707.  428.  ^  X)e/eJtce!  of  the  Rights  of  a  Christian  Church.     1707.    In  reply 
to  Wotton.     A  Second  Defence  appeared  in  1708. 

429.  Nlcholls,  IVillUmi :  Defensio  Ecclesise  Anglicanse.  i2mo. 
Lond.  1707.  Eng.  translation:  A  Defence  of  the  Doctrine  and  Discipline 
of  the  Church  of  England.  In  two  parts.  Containing  the  objections  of 
Dissenters  fairly  represented  from  their  own  celebrated  writers ;  and  fully 
answered.  With  an  Introduction  giving  a  succinct  history  of  the  Separation. 
Being  a  complete  system  of  the  whole  controversy.  8vo.  Lond.  1707.  3d 
ed.,  8vo,  Lond.  1730. 

430.  TlicJceSf  George  :  Two  Treatises,  On  the  Christian  Priesthood, 
and  On  the  Dignity  of  the  Episcopal  Order,  etc.  8vo.  Lond,  1707.  4th 
ed.,  3  vols.,  8vo,  Oxf.  1847.  The  Preface  contains  an  Answer  to  Tindal's 
I^ights,  etc. 

431.  Hrettf  Thomas  :  An  Accoimt  of  Church  Government  and  Gov- 
ernors, wherein  is  showed  that  the  Government  of  the  Church  of  England 
is  most  agreeable  to  that  of  the  Primitive  Church.  8vo.  Lond,  1707.  2d 
ed.,  with  large  additions,  17 10. 

432.  The  Constitution  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

433.  Lauder f  Alexander :  The  Ancient  Bishops  Considered,  both 
with  respect  to  the  extent  of  their  jurisdiction,  and  the  nature  of  their  power, 
in  answer  to  Mr,  Chillingworth  and  others,  etc.     i2mo.     Edinb.  1707. 

434.  The  Divine  Institution  of  Bishops  having  Churches  consisting 

of  many  Congregations,  examined  by  Scripture.     Edinb.  171 1. 

27  35 


4l8  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

1707.  435.  Potter,  John:  A  Discourse  of  Church  Government:  wherein 
the  Rights  of  the  Church  and  the  Supremacy  of  the  Christian  Princes  are 
Vindicated  and  Adjusted.  8vo.  Lond.  1707.  Seventh  ed,,  with  additional 
notes  and  authorities,  8vo,  Lond,  1839;   i2mo,  1852.     Tegg. 

435  a,  Dupui:  Traits  de  la  Puissance  Ecclesiastique  et  Temporelle. 
Paris,  1707. 

1708.  436.  Bennetf  Thomas  :  A  Brief  History  of  the  Joint  Use  of  precom- 
posed  Set  Fonns  of  Prayer,  etc.     8vo.     Camb.  1708. 

437.  A  Discourse  of  Joint  Prayer,     8vo.     Lond.  1708. 

438.  The  Sat/bi'ook  Platform.    1708.    The  Cambridge  Platf.  1648. 

1709.  439.  HickeSf  George:  Bibliotheca  Scriptorum  Ecclesioe  Anglicans; 
a  collection  of  Tracts  relating  to  the  Government  and  Authority  of  the 
Church.  8vo.  Lond.  1709.  Among  the  tracts  reprinted  in  this  volume, 
Bancroft's  Sermon  at  Paul's  Cross,  1588,  is  one. 

1 7 10.  440.  IBhighaniy  Joseph:  Origines  Ecclesiasticae;  or  the  Antiquities 
of  the  Christian  Church.  Originally  published  in  lo  vols.,  8vo,  1 7 10-22, 
Latin  translation,  with  the  quotations  in  full,  by  Grischovius,  in  10  vols.,  4to, 
Halse,  1724-29;  and  again,  in  175 1.      Works,  9  vols,,  8vo,  Lond,  1840, 

441.  Robinson,  JSenJamin:  A  Review  of  the  Case  of  Liturgies 
and  their  Imposition.  In  answer  to  Bennet's  Brief  History,  and  Discourse 
of  Joint  Prayer.     8vo.     Lond.  17 10. 

442.  A  Letter  to  Mr.  T.  Bennet,  in  defence  of  the  Review,  etc.    Pp. 

72.     8vo.     1 7 10. 

171 1.  443.  Hennet,  Thomas:  The  Rights  of  the  Clergy  of  the  Christian 
Church ;  or,  a  Discourse  showing  that  God  has  given  to  the  Clergy  authority 
to  Ordain,  Baptize,  Preach,  etc.  Wherein  the  pretended  divine  right  of  the 
Laity  to  elect  their  own  pastors  is  disproved.     8vo.     Lond.  1711. 

444.  Lfinrencef  Roger:  Lay-baptism  Invalid;  an  Essay  to  prove 
that  such  baptism  is  null  and  void  when  administered  in  opposition  to  the 
divine  right  of  the  apostolical  succession.  3d  ed.,  enlarged.  Without  author's 
name,  8vo,  Lond.  171 1. 

445.  The  Second  Part  of  Lay-baptism  Invalid  ;    showing  that  the 

ancient  Catholic  Church  never  had  any  ecclesiastical  law,  tradition,  or 
custom,  for  the  validity  of  baptisms  by  persons  not  commissioned  by 
bishops.     By  the  author  of  Lay-baptism  Invalid.     8vo.     Lond.  1 7 13. 

446. A  Supplement  to  the  First  and  Second  Parts  of  Lay -baptism 

Invalid,  in  answer  to  Bingham,  with  a  Caveat  against  Dr.  White  Kennet. 
8vo.     Lond.  1 7 14. 

447.  Sacerdotal  Powers;  or  the  Necessity  of  Confession,  Penance, 

and  Absolution.  Together  with  the  Nullity  of  Unauthorized  Lay -baptism, 
etc.     8vo.     Lond.  171 1. 

448.  The  Bishop  of  Oxford's  Charge  Considered.    8vo.    Lond.  1712. 

On  the  same  subjects,  and  also  the  Independence  of  the  Church  on  the  State. 

449.  Dissenters'  and  other  Unauthorized  Baptisms  Null  and  Void, 

by  the  Articles,  Canons,  and  Rubrics  of  the  Church  of  England.  In  answer 
to  a  pamphlet,  called  The  Judgment  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the 

36 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  4I9 

Case   of  Lay-baptism,  and   of   Dissenters'   Baptism.     2d  ed.,   8vo,   Lond. 

[712.  450.  Brokesbl/f  Francis:  An  Histoiy  of  the  Government  of  the 
Primitive  Church  for  the  Three  First  Centuries  and  the  beginning  of  the 
Fourth ;  showing  that  the  Church  in  those  first  ages,  as  it  has  ever  been 
since,  was  governed  by  Bishops.  Wherein  the  suggestions  of  David  Blon- 
del  to  the  contrary  are  considered.     8vo.     Lond.  1712. 

451.  tfaniesoUf  William:  The  Sum  of  the  Episcopal  Controversy. 
8vo.     Edinb.  1 712. 

452.  Calder,  JRobert :  The  True  Difference  between  the  Principles 
and  Practices  of  the  Kirk  and  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Svo.  Lond.  17 12. 
Reprinted,  i2mo,  Lond.  1841. 

453.  JBoi/sCf  Joseph:  A  clear  Account  of  the  Ancient  Episcopacy, 
proving  it  to  have  been  Parochial,  and  not  Diocesan.  Lond.  1712,  and  1726. 

453  a.  JBoehnier :  De  Jure  Episcopali  Principum  EvangeUcorum. 
Halo?,  1712. 

[713.  454.  Hrettf  Thoinas:  An  Inquiry  into  the  Judgment  and  Practice  of 
the  Primitive  Church  in  relation  to  Persons  being  Baptized  by  Laymen; 
wherein  Mr.  Bingham's  Scholastical  History  is  considered,  etc.  Lond.  1713. 
455-  Waterland  and  Kelsall:  Letters  on  Lay -baptism.  Lond. 
1713-14.  Works  of  Dr.  Waterland,  vol,  x.,  Oxf.  1823-8.  Reprint,  6  vols., 
8vo,  1843.  In  these  Letters  the  question  of  the  validity  of  lay-baptism  is 
discussed,  on  either  side,  with  candor,  ability,  and  learning.  Bingham  and 
Kelsall,  following  in  the  lead  of  Hooker,  (Eccl,  Pol.,B.  V.,  c.  Ixi.-lxii.,)  on 
the  one  side,  and  Lawrence,  Bennet,  Brett,  and  Waterland,  on  the  other, 
afford  the  student  ample  means  of  pursuing  the  investigation. 

[714.  456.  Anderson^  John  :  A  Defence  of  the  Church  Government,  Faith, 
Worship,  and  Spirit  of  the  Presbyterians.  Reprinted,  Edinb.  1820.  "A 
remarkably  acute  and  vigorously  written  book,"  says  Bannerman. 

[715.  457.  Mast  richt,  Peter  Van:  Theologia  Theoretico-Practica.  4to. 
Utrecht,  17 15;  Amstel.  1 724.  The  VII.  Book  discusses  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Church  under  four  heads  :  The  Nature  —  The  Ministers  —  The  Sacraments 
—  The  Discipline  and  Government  —  of  the  Church. 

458.  IVise^  rJohn  :  A  Vindication  of  the  Government  of  the  Congre- 
gational Churches.     4th  ed.,  Boston,  i860. 

459.  PrideauXf  HumjJhrcy :  Ecclesiastical  Tracts,  formerly  pub- 
lished, viz. :  The  Validity  of  the  Orders  of  the  Church  of  England  made 
out  against  the  Objections  of  the  Papists,  etc.     8vo.     Lond.  17 15. 

[717.  460.  Brett f  Thoinas:  The  Independency  of  the  Church  upon  the 
State  as  to  its  pure  Spiritual  Powers,  proved  from  the  Holy  Scriptures  and 
the  Writings  of  the  Primitive  Fathers,  etc.     Svo.     Lond.  17 17. 

461.  Sclater,  William  ^  An  Original  Draught  of  the  Primitive 
Church,  in  answer  to  a  discourse  entitled  An  Inquiry  into  the  Constitution, 
Discipline,  Unity,  and  Worship  of  the  Primitive  Church ;  by  a  Presbyter  of 
the  Church  of  England.     8vo.     Lond.  1717.     New  ed.,  with  the  quotations 

37 


420  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

from  the   Fathers,  etc.,  given  at  •length,  fcp.  8vo,  Oxf.    1840.     Am.  ed., 
Columbus,  Ohio,  1833. 

1717.  462.  LatVf  JF/WtV/Wi;  Three  Letters  to  the  Bishop  of  Bangor  (Hoadly). 
8vo.  Lond.  1717.  The  sole  valued  relique  of  the  once  famous  Bangorian 
controversy. 

463.  Lewis f  Tliomas :  The  Scourge;  in  vindication  of  the  Church 
of  England.     8vo.     Lond.  1717-20. 

1 7 18.  464.  Srett,  Thomas:  The  Divine  Right  of  Episcopacy,  and  the 
Necessity  of  an  Episcopal  Commission  for  Preaching  God's  Word,  and  for 
the  Valid  Administration  of  the  Christian  Sacraments.  The  false  principles 
of  Papists,  Lutherans,  and  Calvinists,  concerning  the  dignity  of  Bishops  and 
Presbyters.  The  valid  succession  of  our  English  Bishops  vindicated,  and 
the  Popish  fable  of  the  Nag's  Head  consecration  refuted.  8vo.  Lond. 
171^8.     2d  ed.,  8vo,  Lond.  1728. 

1719.  465.  A.insWOrtJl,  T,:  The  Validity  of  Episcopal  Ordination,  and 
Invalidity  of  any  other,  considered  in  Three  Letters  between  a  Presbyter 
of  the  Church  of  England  (T.  Ainsworth)  and  a  Dissenting  Teacher  (Asher 
Humphreys).     8vo.     Pp.  28.     Oxf.  17 19. 

466.  Pfafff  ChristOJiher  3Iafth,:   De  Originibus   Juris    Ecclesi- 
astici,  veraque  ejusdem  indole,  liber  singularis.     4to.     Tiibing.  1719. 

467.  De  Successione  Episcopali.     1720.     Pfafif  is  the  reputed  author 

of  the  Collegial  System. 

468.  Diinlop,  Williatn:   Collection  of  Confessions,  etc.,  of  Public 
Authority  in  the  Church  of  Scotland.     2  vols.     Sm.  8vo.     Edinb.  17 19-20. 

469.  JT^ardf  Thomas :  The  Controversy  of  Ordination  truly  stated. 
8vo,     Lond.  1 7 19.     Impugning  the  validity  of  Anglican  orders. 

1720.  470.  Mof/erSf  John  :  A  Discourse  of  the  Visible  and  Invisible  Church 
of  Christ.     8vo.     Lond.  1720. 

471.  Review  of  the  Discourse;  being  a  reply  to  Mr.  Sykes's  Answer 

to  that  Dis.course.     8vo.     Lond.  1722. 

472.  Discourse  and  Reply.     8vo.       5th  ed.,  1738. 

1721.  473.  The  Divine  or  Apostolical  Institution,  and  Power  of  Jurisdiction 
of  that  Sacred  Order  of  Men  in  the  Church,  now  called  Bishops,  fully 
proved,  etc.     8vo.     Lond.  1721. 

474-  Leslie f  Charles  :  A  Discourse  on  the  Qualifications  requisite  to 
Administer  the  Sacraments;  wherein  the  cause  of  .Episcopacy  is  briefly 
treated.  Lond.  1721.  Works,  vol.  vii.,  pp.  97-1S9,  Oxf.  1832,  8vo.  Also 
in  Voice  of  the  Church,  vol.  i. 
1723.  475.  Couvayer,  Peter  Francis:  Dissertation  sur  la  Validity  des 
Ordinations  des  Anglois,  etc.  2  vols.  i2mo.  Brux.  1723.  Eng.  transla- 
tion :  A  Defence  of  the  Validity  of  the  English  Ordinations,  and  of  the 
Succession  of  the  Bishops  in  the  Church  of  England ;  together  with  proofs 
justifying  the  facts  advanced,  etc.     8vo.     Lond.  and  Dubl.  1725. 

476.  Defence  de  la  Dissertation,  etc.     4  vols.     l2mo.     Brux.  1726. 

Eng.  translation :    A  Defence  of  the   Dissertation  on  the  Validity  of  the 
English  Ordinations  against  the  several  answers  made  to  it.     2  vols.     8vo. 

38 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  421 

Lond.  1728.    A  revised  edition  of  the  Dissertation,  (Eng.  transl.,)  8vo,  Oxf. 
1844.     The  author,  though  a  professed  Romanist  of  the  Gallican  school, 
was  a  latitudinarian  in  his  doctrinal  views. 
1723.      477.  Le  QuieUf  3Iichael:  La  Nullity  des  Ordinations  Anglicanes, 
ou  Refutation  du  Livre  du  P,  Courayer.     2  vols.     i2mo.     Paris,  1725. 

478.  La  Nullite  des  Ordinations  Anglicanes  demontree  de  nouveau. 

2  vols.     i2mo.     Paris,  1730. 

479.  Dodd,  Charles  (Rd.  Tootle):  Certanien  Utriusque  Ecclesije; 
or,  a  List  of  all  the  Eminent  Writers  of  Controversy,  Catholic  and  Protest- 
ant, since  the  Reformation.  4to.  Lond.  1724.  Reprinted  in  the  Somers 
Tracts,  vol.  xiii. 

1725.  4S0.  Greijf  ZacharjJ  :  The  Ministry  of  the  Dissenters  proved  to  be 
null  and  void,  from  Scripture  and  Antiquity.  Lond.  1725.  In  answer  to 
Dr.  Calamy's  Sermon,  entitled  The  Ministry  of  the  Dissenters  Vindicated. 

1730.  481.  Ayton,  Thomas:  The  Original  Constitution  of  the  Christian 
Church;  wherein  the  extremes  on  either  hand  are  stated  and  examined. 
To  which  is  added  an  Appendix,  concerning  the  rise  of  the  jure  divino 
prelatists,  with  answers  to  their  arguments  by  Episcopal  divines.  Edinb. 
1730. 

481  a.  JBossuet :  Defensio  Declarationis.     Paris,  1730. 

482.  BoeJimer,  Justus  Henning :  Duodecim  Dissertationes  Juris 
Ecclesiastici,  etc.     4to.     Halse,  1730. 

483.  Jus  Parochiale  ad  Fundamenta  Genuina  Revocatum,  etc.  Fourth 

edition.     4to.     Halce,  1730. 

484.  Jus  Ecclesiasticum  Protestantium,  usum  modemum  juris  canonici 

juxta  seriem  decretalium  ostendens,  etc.  2da  edit,  correct.  5  vols.  4to. 
Halse,  1720-36.  Of  this  work  the  Jus  Faroe/dale  is  numbered,  in  some 
editions,  as  volume  vi. 

485.  Entwurf  des  Kirchenstaats  der  drei  ersten  Jahrhunderte.   1 733. 

486.  Corpus  Juris  Canonici.  2  vols.  4to.  Halss,  1747.  A  well- 
known  critical  edition  of  the  highest  merit.  Re-edited  by  A.  L.  Richter, 
2  vols.,  4to,  Lips.  1836. 

1731.  487.  Broivil,  Tltomas :  The  Story  of  the  Ordination  of  our  first 
Bishops  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign  at  the  Nag's  Head  Tavern  in  Cheapside, 
thoroughly  examined;  and  proved  to  be  a  late-invented,  inconsistent,  self- 
contradictory,  and  absurd  fable.  In  answer  to  Le  Quien,  and  to  Remarks 
on  Le  Cojirayer.     8vo.     Lond.  1731. 

"^IZZ-  488.  JMadooCf  Isaac:  A  Vindication  of  the  Government,  Doctrine, 
and  Worship  of  the  Church  of  England,  established  in  the  reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  against  the  injurious  reflections  of  Mr.  Neal's  late  History  of  the 
Puritans.  Together  with  a  detection  of  many  false  quotations  and  mistakes 
in  that  performance.     8vo.     Lond.  1733. 

489.  A  Review  of  the  First  Volume  of  Neal's  History  of  the  Puri- 
tans.    8vo.     Lond.  1734. 
1736.      490.   Crfej/f  Zachary  :  An  Impartial  Examination  of  the  Second  Vol- 
ume of  Mr.  D.  Neal's  History  of  the  Puritans,  etc.     8vo.     Lond.  1736. 

39 


422  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

"^IZ^-  49^-  Orey,  Zachary  :  An  Impartial  Examination  of  the  Third  Vol- 
ume of  Mr.  Neal's  History.     8vo.     1737. 

492.  An  Impartial  Examin.  of  the  Fourth  Volume,  etc.    8vo.    1739. 

493.  A  Review  of  Neal's  History.     1744. 

494.  TTarburton,  JVilliani:  The  Alliance  between  Church  and 
State ;  or,  the  Necessity  and  Equity  of  an  Established  Religion  and  a  Test- 
Law  Demonstrated.  In  three  Books.  8vo.  Lond.  1736.  3d  ed.,  enlarged, 
8vo,  1748.  4th  ed.,  with  Postscript,  8vo,  1766.  The  author  teaches,  in 
opposition  to  Hooker,  that  "  the  Puritan  premise  —  that  the  Church  and  the 
State  are  distinct,  and  originally  independent  societies  —  was  and  is  the 
truth;  but  he  denies  the  Puritan  inference,  that  such  independency  must 
therefore  be  perpetual ;  affirming  the  existence  of  an  'alliance'  between  these 
two  societies  upon  certain  terms ;  and  a  resulting  mutual  inter-dependency 
of  one  on  the  other ;  whereby  the  (supposed)  consequence  from  the  position 
of  the  Puritans  —  an  imperium  in  imperio,  or  subjugation  of  the  State  to  the 
Church  —  and  the  consequence  from  the  position  of  Hooker  —  the  enslave- 
ment of  the  Church  by  the  State  —  are  equally  precluded.  The  Church 
subordinates  itself  to  the  State  upon  faith  of  certain  stipulations  for  support 
by  the  latter;  and  if  the  State  violates,  or  withdraws  from  the  fulfilment  of, 
those  stipulations,  the  Church  is  thereby  remitted  to  her  original  independ- 
ence." 

1737-  495*  Episcojyficy,  High-flown  Episcopal  and  Priestly  Claims  freely 
Examined  :  in  a  Dialogue  betwixt  a  country  gentleman  and  a  country  vicar, 
etc.     Pp.  40.     8vo.     Lond.  1737. 

1738-  496.  Mather,  Samuel:  An  Apology  for  the  Liberties  of  the  Churches 
in  New  England.     Bost.  1738. 

496  a.  Increase  :  A  Disquisition  on  Ecclesiastical  Councils.   1 6mo. 

Bost.  1 7 16. 

1739-  497-  Grey f  Zachary  :  Schismatics  delineated  from  Authentic  Vouch- 
ers; in  reply  to  Neal;  with  Downing's  Journal,  etc.     8vo.     Lond.  1739. 

498.  Jackson,  Laivrence:  A  Dissertation  on  Episcopacy ;  showing 
in  one  short  and  plain  view  the  grounds  of  it  in  Scripture  and  antiquity. 
8vo.  Lond.  1739.  Appended  to  "An  Examination  of  Chubb's  True  Gos- 
pel," etc.  Reprinted  in  the  Churchman's  Remembrancer,  vol.  ii.,  8vo,  Lond. 
1807.  "A  masterly  argumentation." 
1743.  499.  Chanibre,  de  la,  Itharrart:  Traite  de  I'Eglise  de  Jesus 
Christ.     6  vols.      i2mo.     Paris,  1743. 

1746.  500.  Edwards,  Jonathan :  An  humble  Inquiry  into  the  Rules  of 
the  Word  of  God  concerning  the  qualifications  requisite  to  a  complete 
standing  and  full  communion  in  the  visible  Christian  Church.  Bost. 
1746. 

1747.  501.  Watts,  Isaac:  The  Rational  Foundation,  Form,  and  Order  of  a 
Christian  Church,  confirmed  and  improved  by  the  directions  and  examples 
of  the  New  Testament.      Lond.  1747. 

1749.  502.  JBrolvn,  Thomas:  An  Answer  to  a  Discourse  by  Bishop  Stil- 
lingfleet,  soon  after   the  Revolution,  entitled  The  Unreasonableness  of  a 

40 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  423 

New  Separation  on  account  of  the  oaths  to  King  William  and  Queen  Mary. 
Pp.  196.     8vo.     Lend.  1749. 

1753-      502  a.  Soehrtier :  Entstehung  des  Kirchenstaats.     1753. 

1757-  503-  SvhollineVf  Herm*  :  De  Magistratuum  Ecclesise  Origine,  et  cre- 
atione.     4to.     1757. 

1758.  504,  Swedeuhorg,  Emanuel:  De  Nova  Hierosolyma  et  ejus  doc- 
trina  coelesti :  exauditis  e  ccelo.  Quibus  prcemittitur  aliquid  de  Novo  Coelo 
et  Nova  Terra.  4to.  Lond.  1758.  Pp.  156.  (Compiled,  for  the  most  part, 
from  the  Arcana  Ccelestia.) 

1759'  5°4  ^'  ^  Letter  from  a  Blacksmith  to  the  Ministers  and  Elders  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  :  in  which  the  manner  of  public  worship  in  church  is 
considered,  its  inconveniences  and  defects  pointed  out,  and  methods  for 
removing  them  humbly  proposed ;  well  worthy  the  most  serious  considera- 
tion of  Christians  of  all  denominations.  Pp.  xx,,  68.  i2mo.  Edinb.  1759. 
6th  ed.,  Lond.  1845. 

504  b.   Cenili:  Monumenta  Dominationis  Pontificis.  2  vols.  4to.  Roma. 

504  c.  Nicholas  von  Honthebu :  De  Statu  Ecclesise  et  legitima 

potestate  Romani  Pontificis  BuUioni.     410.     (Francf.)   1763.     A  complete 

system  of  Episcopalism.     Published  under  the  name  of  j^ustin  Febronius,  ?d 

ed.,  2  vols.,  1770. 

1764.       505.   Grunev,  J".  Fr.  :  De  Origine  Episcoporum  eorumque  in  Ecclesia 

Primitiva  Jure.     4to.     Halae,  1764. 
1766.      506,  Leaniiuf/f  tfereniy:  A  Defence  of  the  Episcopal  Government 
of  the  Church.     8vo.     N.  York,  1766. 

507.  JSlackburne,  Francis:  The  Confessional;  or,  a  full  and  free 
inquiry  into  the  right,  utility,  edification,  and  success  of  establishing  sys- 
tematical Confessions  of  Faith  and  Doctrine  in  Protestant  Churches.  8vo. 
Lond.  1766.  WorJ^s,  vol.  \.  This  work  excited  a  heated  controversy,  occa- 
sioning the  publication  of  seventy  or  eighty  pamphlets.  Of  these  the  most 
important  are  named  below  —  508-512. 

508.  Ruther forth,  Thomas:  A  Vindication  of  the  Right  of  Pro- 
testant Churches  to  require  the  Clergy  to  subscribe  to  an  established  Confes- 
sion, etc.     8vo.     Lond.  1766. 

509.  A  Second  Vindication  of  the  Right  of  Protestant  Churches  to 

require  the  Clergy  to  subscribe,  etc. 

510.  An  Examination  of  Dr.  Rutherforth's  Argument  respecting 
the  Right  of  Protestant  Churches  to  require  the  Clergy  to  subscribe  to  an 
established  Confession,  etc.  By  a  Clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England. 
8vo.     Lond.  1766. 

511.  ^  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Rutherforth,  occasioned  by  his  Second 
Vindication,  etc.     From  the  Examiner  of  the  First. 

512.  ^  Short  View  of  the  Controversies  occasioned  by  the  Confes- 
sional, etc.     Pp.  xxii.,  24.     2d  ed.,  8vo,  Lond.  1775. 

1769.      513.  FuUwoodf  Francis  :  Roma  Ruit ;  the  pillars  of  Rome  broken ; 
wherein  all  the  several  Pleas  for  the  Pope's  Authority  in  England,  etc.,  are 

41 


424  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

revised  and  answered,     Svo.     Lond.  1769.     Reprinted,  Lond.  1847.  Ed.  C. 

Hardwicke. 
1771.      514.  Chauncy,    Charles:    A   Complete  View   of   Episcopacy,  as 

exhibited  from  the  Fathers  of  the  Christian  Church,  until  the  close  of  the 

second  century,     Svo,     Boston,  1771. 
1774.       515.  D(niOViif  E,  *T.  :   Disseitatio  de  Episcopatu  ^tate  Apostolica, 

4to,     Jena,  1774- 

516.  HenkOf   H,  T,  C:    Historia   Antiquior   Dogmatis   de   Unitate 

Ecclesioe.     4to.     Helmst.  1781. 

1782.  517,  White f  William:  The  Case  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  in  the 
United  States  considered.     Reprinted,  Phila.  1857, 

1783.  518.  Nettelbladff  Daniel:  De  tribus  systematibus  Doctrinasde  Jure 
Sacrorum  dirigendorum  domini  territorialis  evangelici  quoad  Ecclesias  evan- 
gelicas  sui  territorii.  Halse,  1783,  In  the  author's  Observationes  Juris 
Ecdesiastici. 

1786.  519.  Campbell,  TF<7Ziaw^  (of  Armagh) :  Vindication  of  the  Princi- 
ples and  Character  of  the  Presbyterians  of  Ireland,  Svo,  3d  ed.,  Lond, 
17S6. 

519  a,  Hoivdetl,  John:  A  Letter  to  the  Rev,  Ezra  Styles,  Pres,  of 
Yale  College.     Svo,     1787, 

1795,  520-  Hall,  Archibald  :  An  humble  Attempt  to  Exhibit  a  Scriptural 
View  of  the  Constitution,  Order,  Discipline,  and  Fellowship  of  the  Gospel 
Church.  Svo,  Lond,  1795,  Exhibits  the  Argument  in  support  of  Presbytery. 

520  a,  Zacharice:  Einheit  des  Staats  und  der  Kirche,     1797. 

1798.  521,  Daubeiiy,  Charles:  A  Guide  to  the  Church;  in  several  dis- 
courses on  the  Nature,  Design,  and  Constitution  of  the  Christian  Church, 
etc,     Svo.     Lond.  1798,     3d  ed.,  2  vols.,  Svo,  Lond.  1830, 

522,  ZieffleVf  Caspar:  Versuch  einer  Pragmat.  Geschichte  der  Kirch- 
lichen  Verfassungs-Formen  in  der  Ersten  vi.  Jahrhunderten  der  Kirche. 
Svo.     Leipz,  1798, 

1799.  523,  Wliytoch,  George  :  A  short  Vindication  of  Presbyterian  Church 
Government,  containing  a  summary  view  of  the  evidence  in  support  of  it 
from  Scripture,  together  with  an  examination  of  the  principal  arguments  of 
the  Independents  against  it.  The  author  was  minister  of  the  Associate  Con- 
gregation, Dalkeith,      1799, 

524,  Sroivn,  John  (of  Haddington)  :  Letters  on  the  Constitution, 
Government,  and  Discipline  of  the  Christian  Church.     1799. 

1800.  525.  Campbell,  George:  Lectures  on  Ecclesiastical  History.  2  vols. 
Svo.     Lond.  1800.     Lect.  iii,-xi, 

526.  Jones,  William:  Essay  on  the  Church,  Works,  vol,  iv,  of  the 
ed.  in  12  vols.,  Svo,  Lond,  iSoi, 

527.  Overton,  John:  The  True  Churchman  Ascertained;  or,  An 
Apology  for  those  of  the  regular  Clergy  of  the  Establishment  who  are  some- 
times called  Evangelical  ministers ;  occasioned  by  the  publications  of  Drs, 
Paley,  Hey,  Croft,  Messrs,  Daubeny,  Ludlam,  Polwhele,  Fellowes,  the 
Reviewers,  etc.     Svo.     York,  1801,     2d  ed,,  1802, 

42 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  425 

8q3.  528.  Daubenyf  Charles:  Vindicii-e  Ecclesire  Anglican^,  in  which 
some  of  the  false  reasonings,  incorrect  statements,  and  palpable  misrepre- 
sentations in  a  publication  entitled  The  True  Churchman  Ascertained,  etc., 
are  pointed  out.     Svo.     Lond.  1S03, 

529.  Planck,  Gottl.  Jacob  :  Geschichte  der  Entstehung  und  Aus- 
bildung  der  christlich  kirchlichen  Gesellschafts-Verfassung.  In  5  Bdn. 
Hanov.  1803-9.  Of  the  five  parts  into  which  this  work  is  divided,  the  Jirsl 
treats  of  the  origin  of  the  Church  constitution  in  the  Roman  Empire;  the 
second  part,  of  the  new  States  of  the  West  to  the  middle  of  the  9th  century ; 
and  the  third,  fourth,  zxvd.  fifth  give  the  history  of  the  Papacy  to  the 
Reformation. 

530.  ShinneVf  John:  Primitive  Truth  and  Order  Vindicated  from 
Modern  Misrepresentation,  etc.  Svo.  Aberdeen,  1803.  In  reply  to  Dr. 
Campbell:  Lects.  on  Eccl.  Hist. 

531.  A  Layman's  Account  of  his  Faith  and  Practice  as  a  Member 

of  the   Episcopal  Church  of  Scotland.     Edinb.    1801.     Without  author's 
name. 

[895.  532,  Brown,  John  (of  Gartmore) :  A  Vindication  of  the  Presby- 
terian Form  of  Church  Government,  as  professed  in  the  Standards  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  in  reply  to  the  Animadversions  of  Modern  and  Ancient 
Independents.  Edinb.  1805.  "  A  thorough  discussion  of  the  points  at  issue 
between  Presbyterians  and  Independents." 

533.  Gahler,  J,  Bh,:  De  Episcopis  primse  Ecclesise  Christians, 
eorumque  origine.     4to.     Jenos,  1805. 

[806.  534.  Hobartf  John  Henry  :  A  Collection  of  the  Essays  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Episcopacy  which  originally  appeared  in  the  Albany  Centinel.  Svo. 
N.  Y.  1806.  Containing  Three  Letters  by  Bishop  White,  and  Essays  by  Dr. 
Linn,  etc. 

[807.  535.  3tcCrie,  Thomas:  Statement  of  the  Difference  between  the 
Profession  of  the  Reformed  Church  of  Scotland,  as  adopted  by  Seceders, 
and  the  Profession  contained  in  the  New  Testimony  and  other  Acts  lately 
adopted  by  the  General  Associate  Synod,  particularly  on  the  Power  of  Civil 
Magistrates  respecting  Religion,  etc.  Edinb.  1S07.  "This  work,"  says 
Bannerman,  "  comprises  about  the  ablest  discussion  of  the  questions  of 
I  national  religion,  the  relation  of  Church  and  State,  etc.,  with  which  I  am 
acquainted." 

536.  Churchman's  Remembrancer:  Being  a  Collection  of 
scarce  and  valuable  Tracts  in  defence  of  the  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  the 
Church  of  England.  2  vols.  Svo.  Lond.  1S07.  In  the  first  volume  is 
reprinted  Bishop  Barlow's  Siim  and  Substance  of  the  Conference  at  Hamp- 
ton Court;  in  the  second  volume,  Lawrence  Jackson's  Dissertation  on 
Episcopacy. 

537.  Mason,  John  M,:  Essays  on  the  Church  of  God.  i2mo.  N.  Y. 
1S07.     Reprinted  in  Works,  4  vols.,  Svo,  N.  Y.  1832,  vol.  iv. 

538.  Review  of  Essays  on  Episcopacy,     This  first  appeared  in  the 

"  Christian's  Magazine,"  a  monthly  periodical  edited  by  Dr.  M.     RepriBted 

43 


426  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

in  Works,  vol.  iii.,  and  in  i2mo,  N.  Y.  1844.  Eng.  edition:  The  Claims 
of  Diocesan  Episcopacy  Refuted,  etc,  i2mo,  Lond.  1838. 
1S07.  539.  Ilohart,  John  Henry  ;  An  Apology  for  Apostolic  Order  and 
its  Advocates ;  occasioned  by  the  strictures  and  denunciations  of  the  Chris- 
tian's Magazine.  In  a  Series  of  Letters  addressed  to  the  Rev.  John  M. 
Mason,  D.  D.,  editor  of  that  work,  i2mo,  N.  Y.  1807.     New  ed.    1844. 

540.  3Iason,  J.  31. :  Review  of  Hobart's  Apology.  In  the  Chris- 
tian's Magazine.  Reprinted  w'lih.  Review  of  Essays  on  Episcopacy,  i2mo, 
N.  Y.  1844. 

541.  ^liller^  Samuel:  Letters  concerning  the  Constitution  and  Order 
of  the  Christian  Ministry.  i2mo.  N.  Y.  1807.  Reprinted  with  Continua- 
tion, etc.,  8vo,  1830. 

iScS.  542.  Uowden,  John:  The  Apostolic  Origin  of  Episcopacy  Asserted. 
In  a  series  of  Letters  addressed  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Miller.  i2mo.  N.  Y.  1808. 
Reprinted,  i2mo,  N.  Y.  1831. 

1809.  543.  Miller f  Samuel:  A  Continuation  of  the  Letters  concerning  the 
Constitution  and  Order  of  the  Christian  Ministry;  being  an  Examination  of 
the  strictures  of  the  Rev.  Drs,  Bov/den  and  Kt;mp,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  How, 
on  the  former  series.  i2rno.  N.  Y.  1809,  Reprinted  with  first  series,  8vo, 
1830. 

544.  JBowdeUf  John:  A  Series  of  Letters  addressed  to  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Miller,  in  answer  to  his  Continuation  of  Letters  concerning  the  Constitution 
raid  Order  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  i2mo.  N.  Y.  1810.  Reprinted  with 
First  Series,  i2mo,  1831. 

545.  Mitchell f  JPatricJc:  Presbyterian  Letters;  addressed  to  Bishop 
Skinner  of  Aberdeen,  on  his  Vindication  of  Primitive  Truth  and  Order.  To 
M'hich  is  prefixed  a  Preliminary  Discourse  on  the  present  state  of  the  con- 
troversy concerning  ecclesiastical  government.  8vo.  Lond.  1809.  "  It  is 
far  from  being  my  intention,"  says  the  author,  "to  imitate  our  adversaries, 
by  claiming  apostolic  honors  for  Presbytery.  I  leave  the  Jus  divinuDi  to 
be  scrambled  for  by  senseless  and  arrogant  bigots  of  all  denominations." 

546.  Elrlngton,  Thomas:  The  Clergy  of  the  Church  of  England 
truly  Ordained;  or.  The  Validity  of  English  Ordination  Established.  8vo. 
1809.     This  is  an  answer  to  Ward's  Controversy.   [469.] 

547.  Milne7%  John:  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Thomas  Elrington,  D,  D., 
etc.  1809.  Reprinted  in  Archbishop  Kenrick's  Anglican  Ordinations,  etc., 
pp.  293-307. 

548.  Serington  and  Kirk, :  The  Faith  of  Catholics  on  certain  points 
of  controversy,  confirmed  by  Scripture,  and  attested  by  the  Fathers  of  the 
first  five  centuries  of  the  Church,  etc.  8vo.  Lond.  1809.  2d  ed.,  1830. 
Reprint.  Bait.,  3d  ed.,  enlarged  by  Waterworth,  3  vols.,  8vo,  Lond.  1846. 
Sec.  I.,  Prop,  vi.-xiii.,  treats  of  the  Church,  its  Authority,  Unity,  etc.  Bering- 
ton  was  a  Romish  priest,  noted  in  his  day  for  his  liberal  views,  his  advocacy 
of  measure  of  Church  reform,  and  his  determined  antagonism  to  Bishop 
Milner. 

1813.       549.    White,  William :  Lectures  on  the  Catechism  of  the  Protestant 

44 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  42/ 

Episcopal  Church.  With  Supplementary  Lectures;  one  on  the  Ministry,  the 
other  on  the  Public  Service.  And  Dissertations  on  Select  Subjects  in  the 
Lectures.  8vo.  Phila.  1813. 
tSi5.  550.  T/te  C/<i<rc/i'»*a»*' Armed  against  the  Errors  of  the  Time.  3  vols. 
8vo.  Lond.  1814.  A  Collection  of  Tracts  of  various  merit  in  defence  of 
the  Church  of  England. 

551.  Marsh f  Herbert:  A  Comparative  View  of  the  Churches  of  Eng- 
land and  Rome.  L  As  to  Doctrine.  II.  As  to  Church  Ceremonies.  III.  As 
to  Church  Authority.     8vo.     Camb.  1814. 

552.  Hall,  Itobert :  On  Terms  of  Communion,  with  a  particular  view 
to  the  case  of  the  Baptists  and  Piedobaptists.  Reprinted  in  Woj-ks,  6  vols., 
8vo,  Lond.  1831-3.  Am.  ed.,  N.  Y.,  4  vols.,  8vo,  1844.  This  writer  would 
not  compromise  his  principles  by  joining  in  communion  with  a  Church  (the 
established  Church  of  England)  to  which  certain  corruptions — not  affecting 
the  essence  of  the  faith  —  in  his  apprehension,  inseparably  adhere ;  while  he 
would  throw  wide  open  his  door  for  the  free  admission  of  all  who  think 
more  lightly  of  their  peculiarities  than  he  of  his  own;  and  on  the  strength 
of  this  one-handed  charity,  he  claimed  to  be,  and  was  generally  accounted, 
a  man  of  great  liberality  of  views.     See  Life  of  McCrie,  p.  227. 

181 6.  553.  3IaS0Uf  John  31.:  A  Plea  for  Sacramental  Communion  on 
Catholic  Principles.  8vo.  N.  Y.  1816.  Eng.  edition  :  A  Plea  for  Catholic 
Communion  in  the  Church  of  God.  The  2d  ed.,  with  corrections,  8vo,  Lond. 
1 816.  The  position  maintained  in  this  work  is  fundamentally  the  same  as 
■  that  of  the  volume  On  Terms  of  Communion,  viz.,  that  "  the  members  who 
hold  acknowledged  communion  with  the  Head,  whatever  be  their  subordi- 
nate variances,  ought  also  to  hold  communion  with  each  other  in  those  ordi- 
nances which  mark  their  communion  with  the  Head."  The  coincidence  is 
remarkable  that,  without  any  previous  concert,  a  discussion  of  this  subject 
should  have  been  commenced,  nearly  at  the  same  time,  in  England  and 
America,  by  two  writers  so  eminently  gifted  as  ROBERT  Hall  and  John 
]\L  Mason.  As  to  the  comparative  merit  of  the  two  treatises.  Hall's  gener- 
ous acknowledgment  of  the  superiority  of  that  of  his  accomplished  rival  is 
deserving  of  remark.  He  accords  to  Mason's  "mode  of  conducting  the 
argument  a  luminous  simplicity,  which  forms  a  striking  contrast  not  only 
to  the  tedious  logomachies  which"  he,  in  dealing  with  the  question  in  its 
bearing  on  the  views  of  the  Anti-Psedobaptists,  had  been  "  compelled  to 
encounter,  but  to  the  manner  in  which  he  had  attempted  to  confute  them." 
Works,  vol.  i.,  p.  395. 

554.  How,    Thos,    Y,:    A  Vindication   of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church.     N.  Y.  1816.     In  reply  to  Dr.  Mason. 

1817-  554^-  Oberthur,  F,:  Idea  Biblica  Ecclesiie  Dei.  2d  ed.  6  vols. 
Sulzbach,  1S17-28. 

1818.  555.  Elrinffton,  Thomas:  The  Validity  of  English  Ordinations 
Established,  in  answer  to  the  Rev.  P.  Gandolphy's  Sermon  on  John  x.  i. 
8vo.     Dublin,  1818. 

45 


428  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

i8i8.  555  a,  Conder,  Josiah:  On  Protestant  Nonconfonnity.  2  vols.  8vo. 
Lond.  1 81 8. 

1819.  556.  De  Maistre,  Joseph  (Count)  :  Du  Pape.  Paris,  1819.  2d  ed., 
enlarged,  2  vols.,  Paris,  1 82 1.  English  translation,  Lond.  1850.  This 
erratic  writer  —  "  a  reactionary  mystic,"  as  Reuchlin  describes  him  (Hertzog, 
Real  Encycl.) — regards  the  Pope  as  the  impersonation  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence. In  this  work,  he  treats  of  the  Papacy  under  the  four  several  heads 
of  its  relation  [a]  to  the  Catholic  Church;  {b)  to  the  secular  sovereign- 
ties; {c)  to  civilization,  and  the  welfare  of  nations;  [d)  to  schismatic 
Churches.  He  maintains  the  necessity  of  the  conservation  of  the  Papal 
power,  represents  the  Popes  as  the  true  founders  of  Christian  civilization, 
and  arrives  at  the  sweeping  conclusion,  "  No  Pope,  no  Christianity;  and,  as 
a  necessary  corollary,  the  subversion  of  social  order." 

557.  Gveiling f ;  Apostolische    Christengemeinen.     Halberstadt, 

1819. 

1820.  558.  Hangs,  Nathan  :  Methodist  Episcopacy.  i2mo.  N,  York,  1820. 
559.  De  MaisfrCf  Joseph  (Count) :  De  I'Eglise  Gallicane  dans  son 

rapport  avec  le  Souverain-Pontife,  pour  servir  de  suite  a  I'ouvrage  intitule 
Du  Pape.  Paris,  1 821.  This  work  exhibits  an  equal  disregard  of  the  les- 
sons of  history  and  the  events  of  the  author's  own  day,  portending  or  pre- 
luding the  decline  and  fall  of  the  purely  Catholic  Powers,  so  called. 

1821.  560.  JMcCrief  Thomas:  Two  Discourses  on  the  Unity  of  the  Church, 
etc.  Edinb.  1821.  The  chief  object  of  these  discourses  is  "  to  point  out  the 
fallacious  and  unscriptural  character  of  modern  plans  of  union ;  "  among 
which  the  most  to  be  dreaded,  as  the  most  imposing,  says  our  author,  is 
"  that  which  proceeds  on  the  scheme  of  principles  usually  styled  latitudina- 
rian."  Its  abettors  make  light  of  the  differences  which  subsist  among 
religious  parties,  and  propose  to  unite  them  on  principles  on  which  they  are 
agreed,  in  the  way  of  burying  the  rest  in  silence,  or  stipulating  mutual  for- 
bearance with  respect  to  ever)'thing  about  which  they  may  differ  in  opinion 
or  practice. 

561.  If'ilJvSf  S»  C. ;  Correlative  Claims  and  Duties;  or,  An  Essay  on 
the  Necessity  of  a  Church  Establishment.     8vo.     Lond.  1 82 1. 

1822.  562.  JBrlstedf  John:  Thoughts  on  the  Anglican  and  Anglo-American 
Churches ;  being  a  Reply  to  Mr.  Wilks's  work  on  Correlative  Claims  and 
Duties.     8vo.     N.  York,  and  Lond.  1822. 

563.  Wilson,  James:  A  Review  of  the  Letters  of  the  late  Rev.  John 
Bowden,  D.  D.,  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Miller;  or,  Episcopal  Claims  calmly  Con- 
sidered.    8vo.     Providence,  R.  I.,  1822. 

564.  Hey,  IVilliani :  A  Defence  of  Episcopacy  derived  from  the  New 
Testament.  In  a  volume  entitled,  Tracts  and  Essays,  Moral  and  Theological. 
8vo.  Lond.  1822.  Reprinted  in  Wordsworth's  Christian  Institutes,  under 
the  title  Authority  of  a  Threefold  Ministry,  vol.  iii.,  p.  186,  sq.  As  the 
production  of  an  eminent  layman,  this  presentation  of  the  argument  for  Epis- 
copacy is  deserving  of  a  careful  examination. 

1823.  565.  Priien,    Thomas:   An   Analogical  and  Popular  View  of  the 

46 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  429 

Church  of  the  living  GdcI,  its  Ministry  and  Service,  showing  that  a  gi-adu- 

ated  threefold  priesthood  is  found  no  less  under  the  Christian  than  under 

the  Jewish  dispensation,  etc.     2  vols.,  8vo.   Lond.  1823. 
[825.       566.   Moehler,  John  Adatn  :  Die  Einheit  in  der  Kirche,  oder  das 

Princip  des  Catholicismus,  dargestellt  im  Geiste  der  Kirchenviiter  der  drei 

ersten  Jahrhunderte.     8vo.     Tilbing.  1S25. 
1826.      567.  ltd vensc raft f  John  S.:  The  Doctrines  of  the  Church  Vindi- 
cated from  the  Misrepresentations  of  Dr.  John  Rice,  etc.    8vo.    Winchester, 

Va.,  1826. 

56S.    Fletcher f  John:  A  Comparative  View  of  the  Grounds  of  the 

Catholic  and  Protestant  Churches.    8vo.    Lond.  1826.   The  author  belonged 

to  the  more  liberal  school  of  Romish  divines. 
[828.      569.  Bavrington,  John  Shute  :  Essay  on  the  Distinction  between 

Apostles,  Elders,  and  Brethren.      M^or^s,  3  vols.,  8vo,  Lond.  1828,  vol.ii., 

pp.  1-180. 

570.  Rose,  Hugh  James:  The  Commission  and  Consequent  Duties 
of  the  Clergy.     8vo.     Lond.  1828. 

571.  Chapman f  George  T.  :  Sermons  upon  the  Ministr>%  Worship, 
and  Doctrines  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.     i2mo.     1828. 

572.  Sermons  to  Presbyterians  of  all  Sects.   i2mo.  Hartford,  1836. 

Supplementary  to  No.  571. 

1829.  573.  Cooke,  John  Esten:  An  Essay  on  the  Invalidity  of  Presby- 
terian  Ordination.  8vo.  Lexington,  Ky.,  1829.  Reprinted  in  Works  on 
Episcopacy,  vol.  ii.,  i2mo,  N.  Y.  1831.  Review  in  Bib.  Rep.  of  Princeton, 
N.  J.,  Jan.  1830. 

574.  Answer  to  the  Review  of  an  Essay,  etc.,  in  the  Bib.  Rep.,  etc. 

8vo.     Lexington,  1830. 

1830.  575.   Coleridge,  S,  T,:  On  the  Constitution  of  the  Church  and  State,  y. 
according  to  the  Idea  of  each.    8vo.    Lond.  1S30.     3d  ed.,  1839.     Reprint. 

in  IVorl^s,  vol.  vi.,  i2mo,  N.  Y.  1853. 

1831.  576.  Miller,  Samuel:  An  Essay  on  the  Warrant,  Nature,  and  Duties 
of  the  Office  of  the  Ruling  Elder  in  the  Presbyterian  Church.  i2mo.  Phila. 
1831. 

577.  Onderdonh,  Henri/  Usfick:  Episcopacy  Tested  by  Scrip- 
ture. i2mo.  Pp.46.  N.  Y.  1831.  First  published  in  Prot.  Episcopalian, 
1830,  Phila. 

578.  lievieiV  of  Episcopacy  Tested  by  Scripture,  in  the  Quarterly  Chris- 
tian Spectator,  ^Llrch,  1834. 

579.  Onderdonk,  H,  U,:  Answer  to  a  Review  in  the  Christian 
Spectator.     Prot.  Episc,  May,  1834. 

580.  Barnes,  Albert:    Second  Review  of  Episcopacy,  etc.,  in    the 
Christian  Spectator,  March,  1835.     By  the  author  of  the  First.     The  two 
Reviews  reprinted  in  a  volume  :  The  Scriptural  Argument  for  Episcopacy  j 
Examined.     i2mo.     Phila.  1835. 

581.  Onderdonk,  H  U.  :  Remarks  on  Rev.  Mr.  Barnes's  Second 
Review  of  Episcopacy  Tested  by  Scripture.     Phila.  1835. 

47 


430  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

582.  Review  of  Episcopacy  Tested  by  Scripture  in  the  Biblical  Reper- 
tory, April,  1835. 

583.  Jf.  JJ,  O.  ;  Answer  to  a  Review,  etc.,  in  the  Bib,  Rep.,  etc.  Phila. 
1835.  The  above-named  seven  tracts,  (577-583,)  with  others,  were  repub- 
lished in  one  volume,  i2mo,  N.  Y.  1835.  A  fair  and  full  discussion  of  the 
Argument  for  Episcopacy  drawn  from  Scripture  exclusively. 

584.  Caivoodf  John:  The  Church  of  England  and  Dissent.  i2mo. 
Lond.  1 83 1.     2d  ed. 

1832.  585.  3Ioehl€r,  John  Adam:  Symbolik,  oder  Darstellung  der  dog- 
matischen  Gegensatze  der  Katholiken  und  Protestanten  nach  ihren  ofifent- 
lichen  Bekenntnissschriften,  8vo.  Tubing.  1832.  5th  ed.,  1838.  Eng.  trans- 
lation, Symbolism ;  or,  Exposition  of  the  Doctrinal  Differences  between  Cath- 
olics and  Protestants,  as  evidenced  by  their  symbolical  writings.  2  vols.  8vo. 
Lond.  1843.  Am.  ed.,  8vo.,  N.  Y.  1844.  Part  I.,  chap,  v.,  sect,  xxxvi.-li. 
"  An  admirable  specimen  of  what  can  be  done  by  a  thoroughly  efficient  and 
dexterous  controversialist,  in  the  way  of  omission,  modification,  plausible 
explanation,  and  defence,  to  maintain  the  cause  of  the  Papacy.  To  any  one 
wishing  an  excuse  for  going  over  to  Rome,  this  is  a  work  to  be  strongly 
recommended." 

586.  Evans,  Mohert  IV,  :  The  Church  of  God ;  in  a  Series  of  Ser- 
mons.    8vo.     Lond.  1832. 

^^33-  587.  Sinclair f  John:  Dissertations  Vindicating  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, with  regard  to  some  essential  points  of  Polity  and  Doctrine.  8vo. 
Lond.  1833.  Of' the  four  dissertations  composing  this  volume  —  on  Episco- 
pacy, Liturgical  Worship,  Romish  Infallibility,  and  the  Atonement  —  the 
first  named  is  the  most  complete,  containing  the  substance  of  all  that  is  to  be 
gleaned  from  the  early  Fathers,  the  mediaeval  writers,  and  the  divines  of 
the  Reformation,  both  Anglican  and  Continental,  having  a  bearing  upon  the 
subject.  While  it  exhausts  the  argument  drawn  from  antiquity,  it  furnishes 
an  answer  to  every  objection  which  is  to  be  found  in  modern  writings.  In 
maintaining  the  apostolicity  of  Episcopacy,  the  author  disavows  the  purpose 
of  excluding  from  the  Church  of  Christ  those  Christian  societies  whose  forms 
of  discipline  are  less  agreeable  to  apostolic  precedent. 

588.  Arnold,  Thomas:  Principles  of  Church  Reform.  Svo.  Pp.88. 
Lond.  1833.  A  defence  of  the  established  Church,  containing  a  proposal 
of  the  means  of  its  rescue  from  impending  overthrow  —  First.  By  a  plan  for 
comprehending  the  Dissenters  within  the  pale  of  the  establishment,  without 
compromise  of  principle  on  either  side.  Second.  By  the  revival  of  the  order 
of  deacons  as  a  link  between  the  clergy  and  laity.  Thh'd.  The  union  of 
laymen  with  clerical  synods.  Fourth.  Of  clergy  with  the  civil  legislature. 
Fifth.  Permission  granted  to  civil  or  military  officers  to  administer  the 
sacraments  in  congregations  where  the  presence  of  clergy  could  not  be  pro- 
cured. Sixth.  Daily  service.  Seventh.  Frequent  communion,  religious 
orders,  etc.,  etc. 

589.  Wilson f  James  P,  :  The  Primitive  Government  of  Christian 

48 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  43 1 

Churches.  i2mo.  Phila.  1833.  The  author,  a  Presbyterian,  combats  aUke 
the  claims  of  Episcopacy  and  of  a  lay  eldership. 

1834.  590.  Ilornef  Thomas  II. :  The  Conformity  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land in  her  Ministry,  Doctrine,  and  Liturgy  to  the  Apostolical  Precept  and 
Pattern.     i2mo.     Lond.  1834. 

591.  Hoslcovatiy  :  De  Primatu  Pontificis  Romani.  Augusts  Vindel. 
1S34. 

1835-  592.  Miller^  Saim( el:  Presbyterianism  the  truly  Primitive  and  Apos- 
tolical Constitution  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  i2mo.  Phila.  1835.  Edinb. 
iSmo,  1842. 

593.  T<l!fl or,  Isaac:  Spiritual  Despotism.  8vo.  Lond.  1835.  Pp- 500. 
N.  York  and  Boston,  i2mo,  pp.  363,  1835. 

594.  Xitzschf  K,  J,:  ProtestantischeBeantwortungder  Symbolik  Dr. 
Moehler's.  Nebst  einem  Anhang :  Protestantische  Theses.  8vo.  Hamb.  1835. 
Moehler  also  found  a  powerful  opponent  in  Dr.  Baur,  his  colleague  at 
Tlibingen,  the  author  of  Der  Gegensatz  des  Katholicismus  und  Protestantis- 
mus.     1836. 

595.  Hopkins,  John  Henry:  The  Primitive  Church  Compared 
with  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  the  Present  Day.  i2mo.  Burling- 
ton, Vt.     1835.    2d  ed.,  1836. 

596-  The  Church  of  Rome  in  her  Primitive  Purity  Compared  with 

the  Church  of  Rome  at  the  Present  Day.  Being  a  candid  examination  of 
her  claims  to  universal  dominion,  addressed  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  kind- 
ness to  the  Roman  Hierarchy.  i2mo.  Burlington.  1837.  Lond.,  Svo,  1839. 
^•*^3'5-  597-  Coif  on,  Calvin  :  Thoughts  on  the  Religious  State  of  the  Country- ; 
with  Reasons  for  preferring  Episcopacy.  i2mo.  N.  York,  1836.  Rev. 
in  Brit.  Crit.,  vol.  xxi.  The  writer  of  this  book  went  over  to  England,  in 
1831,  a  Presbyterian;  in  1835  he  returned  to  New  England,  an  Episcopa- 
lian.    The  process  of  his  conversion  is  narrated  in  this  volume. 

598.  Bangs,  Nathan,:  The  Original  Church  of  Christ.  i2mo.  N.  Y. 
1836. 

599-  Doflsivorfh,  William:  The  Church  of  England;  a  Protest 
against  Romanism  and  Dissent.     i8mo.     Lond.  1836. 

600.  Why  have  you  become  a  Romanist?    A  Letter  to  Mr.  Sibthorp. 

8vo.  2d.  ed.,  Lond.  1842.  The  author,  not  long  after  the  publication  of 
this  Letter,  himself  became  a  Romanist,  and  published  the  volume  next 
named. 

601.  Anglicanism  Considered  in  its  Results.     i2mo.     Lond.  1 85 1. 

602.  Wiseman,  Nicholas:  Lectures  on  the  Principal  Doctrines  and 
Practices  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Svo.  Lond.  1836.  2d  ed.,  2  vols.,  l2mo, 
Lond.  1844.  5th  Am.  ed.,  2  vols,  in  one,  i2mo.  Bait.  1857.  Rev.  in  Brit. 
Crit.,  vol.  XX.     Lects.  viii.-ix. 

603. Lectures  on  the  Catholic  Hierarchy.     8vo.     Lond.  1850. 

604.  Essays  on  Various  Subjects.    3  vols.    Svo.    Lond.  1853.     The 

Essays  on  Ecclesiastical  Organization ;  Anglican  Claims  of  Apostolical  Suc- 
cession;  The  Catholic  and  Anglican  Churches;  The  Anglican  System,  etc., 

49 


432  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

claim  special  attention.  These  works  (602-604)  claim  a  high  place  among 
the  doctrinal  and  polemical  writings  of  the  modern  English-speaking  Ro- 
manist divines.  While  they  are  characterized  by  a  spirit  of  conciliation, 
they  are  yet  open  to  the  animadversion  already  passed  upon  the  polemical 
writings  of  Moehler. 

1836.  605.  Percevalf  A..  P.:  The  Roman  Schism  Illustrated  from  the 
Records  of  the  Catholic  Church.  8vo.  Lond.  1836.  Rev.  Brit.  Crit.,  vol. 
XX.  The  general  object  of  this  work  is  thus  stated  by  the  writer  :  "  One  of 
the  great  difficulties  with  which  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England  have 
to  contend  in  the  controversy  with  Rome,  now  reopened,  consists  in  the 
scarcity  and  costliness  of  the  works  from  which  alone  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  Roman  doctrines  is  to  be  obtained.  With  a  view  to  remedy  this  evil 
in  part,  there  are  presented  to  the  reader  in  the  following  collection,  extracted 
from  all  the  councils  authoritatively  received  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  all 
the  decrees  upon  the  points  in  dispute  between  it  and  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land ;  thus  enabling  the  student  upon  this  subject  to  substitute  a  small  octavo 
volume  for  sixteen  or  seventeen  folios." 

606.  LatJiburijf  Thomas  :  A  History  of  the  English  Episcopacy ; 
from  the  period  of  the  Long  Parliament  to  the  Act  of  Uniformity.  8vo. 
Lond.  1836.  Rev.  in  Brit.  Crit.,  vol.  xx.,  Edinb,  Ixiv.  According  to  the 
author  of  this  volume,  the  uncompromising  assertion  of  Episcopacy  was, 
as  it  were,  an  afterthought  of  the  Reformation.  The  divine  institution  of 
the  episcopate  is  not  heard  of  for  many  years  after  the  accession  of  Eliza- 
beth, On  this  point  the  Anglican  divines  maintained  a  profound  silence, 
until  they  were  driven,  by  sheer  stress  of  controversy,  to  define  their  posi- 
tion. They  had  been  content  to  say,  merely,  that  the  Episcopal  form  of  gov- 
ernment is  "  agreeable  to  the  word  of  God,"  until  they  heard  the  men  of 
Geneva  proclaim  that  no  form  of  polity  but  their  own  was  "  agreeable  to 
the  word  of  God ;  "  that  their  discipline  resembled  the  tabernacle  whose 
pattern  was  revealed  in  the  mount,  etc.  Even  Hooker  himself,  and  all  the 
writers  of  that  day,  affirmed  that  forms  of  Church  government  were  to  be 
numbered  among  things  mutable  and  unessential.  They  held,  indeed,  that 
the  Anglican  Church  adhered  more  closely  than  any  other  to  the  apostolic 
precedent ;  but  as  to  asserting  the  necessity  of  the  Episcopal  system,  they 
never  thought  of  such  a  thing  until  long  after  the  Reformation,  and  never 
would  have  thought  of  it,  in  all  probabilit}',  if  it  had  not  been  forced  upon 
them  by  the  arrogance  of  some  of  the  early  Puritans,  in  asserting  the  disci- 
pline of  Calvin.  Our  author  thus  reaffirms  the  statement  of  the  distinguished 
historian  of  the  English  Constitution,  that,  "  it  was  not  till  afterwards,  that 
the  defenders  of  the  established  order  found  out  that  one  claim  of  divine 
right  was  best  met  by  another." 

1838.  607.  Maurice,  F,  D,  :  The  Kingdom  of  Christ;  or,  Hints  to  a 
Quaker,  respecting  the  Principles,  Constitution,  and  Ordinances  of  the 
Catholic  Church.  3  vols.,  sm.  8vo.  Lond.  1838.  New  Edition,  in  2  vols., 
8vo,  Lond.  1842 — not  so  much  a  second  edition  as  a  really  new  work,  not 
altogether  superseding  the  first,  though  superior  to  it  in  system  and  com- 

50 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  433 

pleteness.  "  Independently  of  the  Oxford  school,  and  by  different  methods, 
the  author  arrives  at  the  doctrine  of  a  Catholic  Church,  set  up  in  the  world 
as  a  visible  polity,  organized  by  an  apostolical  priesthood,  developed  in 
sacraments,  holding  one  unchangeable  creed,  by  fellowship  with  which  we 
join  in  the  eternal  fellowship  of  the  blessed,  by  separation  from  which  we 
separate  ourselves  from  the  promises  of  God."  Bannerman  pronounces  this 
work  greatly  inferior  to  Archbishop  Whately's,  in  clearness,  vigor,  and 
accuracy  of  statement.  The  two  agree,  however,  in  contemplating  the 
Churchalmost  exclusively  from  the  human  stand-point.  Am.  ed.  N.Y.  1843. 
183S.  608.  Kcnrlckf  F,  P,:  The  Primacy  of  the  Apostolic  See,  and  the 
Authority  of  General  Councils  Vindicated.  In  a  series  of  Letters  addressed 
to  the  Rt.  Rev.  J.  H.  Hopkins,  etc.     i2mo.     Phila.  1838. 

609.  Mitchell f  John:  Guide  to  the  Principles  and  Practice  of  the 
Congregational  Churches  of  New  England.  l8mo.  Northampton,  Mass., 
1838.     Princeton  Rev.  viii.  243. 

610.  Palmer,  Will'unn:  A  Treatise  on  the  Church  of  Christ;  de- 
signed chiefly  for  the  use  of  students  in  theology.     2  vols.     8vo.     Lond. 

1838.  3d  ed.,  revised  and  enlarged,  Lond.  1842.  Am,  ed.,  with  Notes 
by  Bishop  Whittingham,  2  vols.,  8vo,  N.  York,  1841.  Rev.  in  Brit.  Crit., 
vol.  xxiv.  The  author,  well  known  as  one  of  the  early  promoters  of  the 
Oxford  movement,  writes  from  the  Anglo-Catholic  point  of  view,  with 
abundant  display  of  erudition.  The  work  is  commended  by  Father  New- 
man as  a  book  "  which  no  Anglican  could  write  but  Mr.  Palmer  himself." 
[^Apologia probita  sua.) 

611.  GladsfoitCf  W,  E,  :  The  State  in  its  Relations  with  the  Church. 
8vo.  Lond.  1838.  Fourth  ed.,  revised  and  enlarged,  2  vols.  8vo,  Lond. 
184I.  Rev.  in  Brit.  Crit.,  vol.  xxvi.  Quart.  Rev.  Ixv.,  xcvii.  Macaulay's- 
Essays,  vol.  iv.,  p.  116. 

1839.      612.  Presbyter ianism  Defended.    Glasgow,  1839. 

613.  Plea  <//  Presbytery,  Belfast,  1840.  3d  ed.,  1843.  These 
volumes  (612,  613)  are  commended  by  Bannerman  as  able  discussions  of 
the  main  points  in  dispute,  lx)th  as  to  government  and  worship,  between 
Presbyterians  and  Episcopalians. 

614.  Powell,  Thomas:  An  Essay  on  Apostolical  Succession;  being 
a  defence  of  a  genuine  Protestant  ministry  against  exclusive  and  intolerant 
schemes  of  Papists  and  High  Churchmen.  i2mo.  Lond.  1839.  2d  ed., 
8vo,  1840;  with  Review  of  Perceval's  Apology. 

615.  Perceval,  A,  P.:  An  Apology  fo.-  the  Doctrine  of  Apostolical 
Succession;  with  an  Appendix  on  the  English  Orders.     Sm.  8vo.     Lond. 

1839.  2d  ed.,  1841.  Rev.  in  Brit.  Crit.,  vol.  xxvii.  In  the  Appendix, 
which  makes  up  more  than  one-half  of  this  volume,  the  Romanist  objections 
to  the  Anglican  Succession  —  six  in  number,  viz.,  i.  The  Nag's  Head  story; 
2.  The  defectiveness  of  our  form  of  consecration  of  bishops ;  and  3.  That 
of  the  ordination  of  priests ;  4.  The  invalidity  of  the  consecration  of  the 
bishops  who  consecrated  Archbisl^p  Parker;  5.  The  schismatic  character  of 
the  English   ordinations,  as  made  in   opposition  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome ; 

28  51 


434  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

6.  And  the  fact  that  some  of  Archbishop  Parker's  consecrators  were  married 
men  —  are  first  passed  in  review,  and  satisfactorily  disposed  of.  Then  fol- 
lows a  list  of  between  400  and  500  English  consecrations,  from  Cranmer 
and  his  consecrators  inclusive,  down  to  the  date  of  the  author's  book,  con- 
taining name,  see,  date  of  consecration,  and  names  of  consecrators  in  the 
case  of  each  bishop.  Next  is  exhibited  the  episcopal  descent  of  Parker  and 
Pole,  respectively,  traced,  by  way  of  contrast,  for  four  successions.  The 
author  then  traces  up  the  episcopal  descent  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury 
for  four  successions,  all  the  consecratox*s  being  in  this  case  known,  and  finds, 
as  he  expresses  it,  that  "  in  transmitting  the  apostolical  commission  to  the 
present  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  there  were,  in  the  first  step,  four  bishops 
concerned  ;  in  the  second,  twelve  ;  in  the  third,  twenty-seven  ;  in  the  fourth, 
about  fifty  ;  so  that  not  a  single  consecration,  here  and  there,  but  all  the  con- 
secrations in  England,  for  successive  generations,  must  be  supposed  to  have 
failed,  before  the  objection  can  be  worthy  of  consideration,  that  the  failure 
of  the  due  consecration  of  any  one  single  bishop  in  the  line  would  destroy 
the  whole  theory." 
1839.  616.  IBevei'ley,  JR.  M.  :  The  Heresy  of  Human  Priesthood.  2d  edit., 
Lond.  1839.  This  volume  contains  an  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Oxford 
movement  of  1833. 

617.  A  Letter  to  his  Grace  the  Archbishop  of  York,  on  the  present 

Corrupt  State  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  of  which  the  12th  edition  appeared 
in  1 83 1,  pp.  39.     8vo.     Beverley. 

618.  MiddfCf  «/.  E,:  A  Manual  of  Christian  Antiquities;  or,  An  Ac- 
count of  the  Constitution,  Ministers,  Worship,  DiscijDline,  etc.,  of  the 
Ancient  Church,  etc.     8vo.     Lond.  1839. 

1840-41.  619-637.  Tracts  for  the  Tinies^  by  Members  of  the  University  of 
Oxford.  6  vols.  8vo.  Oxf.  1840.  Vol,  I.,  for  1833-34;  new  ed.,  1840, 
containing  Tracts  i.-xlvi.,  and  xviii..  Records  of  the  Church.  Vol.  11.,  for 
1834-5,  containing  Tracts  xlvii.-lxvii. ;  Nos.  Ixvii.-lxx.  are  not  included  in 
this  edition.  Vol.  IH.,  for  1835-6,  Tracts  Ixxi.-lxxvii.  Vol.  IV.,  for  1836-7, 
Tracts  Ixxviii.-lxxxii.  Vol.  V.,  1838-40,  Tracts  Ixxxiii.-lxxxviii.  Vol.  VL, 
Ixxxix.-xc,  Tract  i.  The  Ministerial  Commission;  ii.  The  Catholic  Church; 
iv.  Apostolical  Succession ;  v.  Nature  and  Constitution  of  the  Church ; 
vii.  The  Episcopal  Church  Apostolical;  xi.  The  Visible  Church;  xii.  Bish- 
ops, Priests,  and  Deacons  ;  xv.  Apostolical  Succession  in  the  English  Church ; 
xvii.  The  Ministerial  Commission ;  xx.  The  Visible  Church  ;  xxiv.  The 
Apostolical  Commission  ;  xxix.-xxx.  Christian  Liberty ;  xxxi.  The  Reformed 
Church;  xxxiii.  Primitive  Episcopacy;  xlvii.  The  Visible  Church ;  xlix.  The 
Kingdom  of  Heaven ;  Iviii.  The  Church,  as  Viewed  by  Faith  and  by  the 
World  ;  lix.  The  Position  of  the  Church  in  England. 

638.  Seivellf  W,:  Review  of  Tracts,  in  Lond,  Quart,,  INLirch,  1S39, 
vol.  Ixiii.,  On  Oxford  Theology.     Apologetic. 

639.  The  Church-of-England  Divines  in  the  17th  Century.     Lond. 

Quart.,  March,  1842.     In  support  of  the  Protestant,  as  opposed  to  the  ultra 
Anglo-Catholic  Position. 

52 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  435 

640.  Develoimient  of  the  Church  in  the  xviith  Century.  Brit.  Critic, 
Oct.  1S42.     In  reply  to  No.  639. 

641.  Milnian,  Henry  Hart:  On  the  Rubrics  and  Ritual  of  the 
Church  of  England.     Lond.  Quart.  Rev.,  vol.  Ixxii.,  1843, 

642.  I*us€i/f  EdlV,  lioiiverle  :  Extracts  from  Tracts  for  the  Times  ; 
showing  that  to  oppose  ultra- Protestantism  is  not  to  favor  Popery,  etc.  8vo. 
Pp.  20.     Lond.  1840.     Anonymous. 

643.  JPalnier,  William  :  A  Narrative  of  Events  connected  M'ith  the 
publication  of  *he  Tracts  for  the  Times,  etc.  8vo.  Rev.  in  Edinb.  Rev., 
vol.  Ixxx. 

644.  Perceval,  A.  P. :  A  Collection  of  Papers  connected  vf\\h  the 
Theological  Movement  of  1833.  ^\>-  ^o/-  ^^o-  Lond.  1842.  Among 
these  papers  is  one  On  Apostolical  Succession  in  Sweden,  p.  64;  and  one 
on  the  Episcopacy  of  the  Moravians,  p.  77. 

645.  GlatlstOUe,  IV,  E»  :  Church  Principles  Considered  in  their 
Results.     8vo.     Lond.  1840. 

646.  Acton f  Henry  :  Three  Lectures  on  the  supposed  Apostolic  Suc- 
cession, and  Authority  of  a  Christian  Priesthood.     Exeter,  1840. 

647.  tinier,  Samuel:  The  Primitive  and  Apostolic  Order  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  Vindicated.     i2mo.     1 840. 

648.  Voice  of  the  Churchy  or.  Selections  from  the  writings  of  the 
divines  and  other  members  of  the  Church  in  all  ages,  on  subjects  relating  to 
doctrine,  religious  practice,  and  ecclesiastical  history,  etc.  2  vols,  royal  8vo. 
Lond.  1840.     Containing,  among  other  treatises,  the  five  next  following: 

649.  Heveridge,  JVilliani:  On  Church  Government;  now  first 
translated. 

650.  Leslie,  Charles:  On  Episcopacy. 

651.  Sanderson,  Robert:  Puritan  Prejudices  and  Censures  against 
the  Clergy  of  the  Church  of  England,  Considered  and  Answered. 

652.  Patrich,  Syinon:  The  Dignity  of  the  Christian  Priesthood. 

653.  tTones,  IVilliam :  An  Essay  on  the  Church. 

654.  Palmer,  IVilliam :  The  Apostolical  Jurisdiction  and  Succes- 
sion of  the  Episcopacy  in  the  British  Churches,  vindicated  against  the  excep- 
tions of  Dr.  Wiseman  in  the  Dublin  Review.     8vo.     Lond.  1840. 

655.  McNeile,  Hugh  :  Lectures  on  the  Church  of  England.  7th  ed. 
8vo.  Lond.  1840.  8th  ed.,  i2mo,  Lond.  1842.  In  vindication  and  support 
of  national  Church  establishments,  that  of  England  in  particular,  pointing 
out  its  defects,  and  suggesting  the  best  remedies. 

656.  WardlaiV,  Ralph:  National  Church  Establishments  Examined: 
a  course  of  Lectures  delivered  in  London  in  April  and  May,  1839.  Royal 
8vo.  Lond.  No  date.  Dr.  McNeile's  Lectures  were  delivered  in  London 
in  March  of  the  year  following —  1840. 

657.  Letters  to  the  Rev.  Hugh  McNeile,  M.  A.,  on  some  portions 

of  his  Lectures  on  the  Church  of  England.     Lond.   1840.     The  Lectures 
and  Letters  aljly  advocate  "  the  voluntary  principle." 

53 


436  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

1840.  658.  Boyd,  Archibald:  Episcopacy  and  Presbytery.  Pp.436.  Svo. 
Lond.  1 840- 1. 

659.  Letters  on  Episcopacy,  etc.     Svo.     Lond. 

660.  Sermons  on  the  Church. 

660  a.  Essays  on  the  Church,     By  a  Layman.   i2mo.  Lond.  1840. 

1841.  661.  IFJiafely,  JRlchard  :  The  Kingdom  of  Christ  Delineated;  in 
two  Essays :  On  our  Lord's  own  Account  of  his  Person,  and  of  the  Nature 
of  his  Kingdom ;  and  on  the  Constitution,  Powers,  and  Ministry  of  a  Chris- 
tian Church,  as  appointed  by  Himself.  Svo.  Lond.  1841.  Am.  ed.,  Svo, 
N.  Y.  1859. 

662.  Smyth f  Thomas:  The  Prelatical  Doctrine  of  Apostolical  Suc- 
cession Examined,  and  the  Protestant  Ministry  defended  against  the  Assump- 
tions of  Popery  and  High-churchism,  in  a  series  of  Lectures.  Pp.  568.  Svo. 
Boston,  1 841. 

663.  Presbytery  and  not  Prelacy,  the  Scriptural  and  Primitive  Policy. 

Pp.  56S.  Svo.  Boston,  1S43;  Glasc.  1844.  Though  too  ponderous  for 
their  theme,  these  volumes  contain  a  valuable  collection  of  literary  material 
and  references. 

664.  KenricTCf  I*.  It.  :  The  Validity  of  the  Anglican  Ordinations 
Examined ;  or,  A  Review  of  certain  Facts  regarding  the  Consecration  of 
Matthew  Parker,  first  Protestant  Archbishop  of  .Canterbury.  Svo.  Phila. 
1841.     2d  ed.,  revised,  Svo,  pp.  342,  Phila.  1848. 

665.  Wy cliff e,  John:  The  Last  Age  of  the  Church.  Now  first 
printed.     iSmo.     Dublin,  1840-1.     Wycliffe's  first  work,  A.  D,  1356. 

666.  Yailf  Thomas  H,:  The  Comprehensive  Church;  or.  Christian 
Unity  and  Ecclesiastical  Union.     iSmo.     Phila.  1S41. 

1S42.  667.  O^BrieUf  JaiUes  Tliomas:  A  Charge  delivered  to  the  Clergy 
of  the  United  Dioceses  of  Ossory,  Ferns,  and  Leighlin,  at  his  primary  visita- 
tion in  Sept.,  1842.  Am.  ed.,  Svo.,  pp.  100,  Phila.  1843.  ^  History  of 
the  Oxford  Movement  from  its  inception ;  and  a  concise  Exposition  of  the 
whole  Anglo-Catholic  Scheme.  Reprinted  in  Bricknell's  Judgment  of  the 
Bishops,  etc.     [No.  722.] 

668.  JBrowUf  John  (of  Langton)  :  The  Exclusive  Claims  of  Puseyite 
Episcopalians  to  the  Christian  Ministiy  Indefensible;  with  an  Inquiry  into 
the  Divine  Right  of  Episcopacy  and  the  Apostolical  Succession ;  in  a  series 
of  Letters  to  Dr.  Pusey.     Edinb.  1S42. 

669.  Neivman,  John  Henry :  The  Church  of  the  Fathers.  Second 
ed.,  sm.  Svo,  Lond.  1842.     Without  author's  name. 

670.  Bernard,  J.  L,:  The  Synagogue  and  the  Church;  being  an 
attempt  to  show  that  the  Government,  Ministers,  and  Services  of  the  Church 
were  derived  from  those  of  the  Synagogue.  Condensed  from  the  original 
Latin  work  of  Vitringa.     Svo.     Lond.  1842. 

671.  Planning ,  Henry  Edward :  The  Unity  of  the  Church.  Svo. 
Lond.  1842.     Am.  ed.,  i2mo,  N.  Y.  1844. 

672.  Butler,  William  Archer:  Primitive  Church  Principles  not 
Inconsistent  with  Universal  Christian  Sympathy.     A  Sermon ;  to  which  is 

54 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  43/ 

added  A  Letter  in  corroboration  of  the  argument  of  the  Sermon.     In  vol.  i. 
of  Butler's  Sermons,  8vo,  Lond.,  6th  ed.,  1864. 
1842.      673.   Peri'One:    Prxlectiones    Theologicas.      Tom.  ii.     Parisiis,   1842. 
This  writer  is  of  the  school  of  Bellarmine,  a  representative  of  the  more 
rigid  and  traditional  class  of  Roman  divines. 

674.  Slomfielfff   Chnrles :    Sermons  on  the  Church.     8vo.     Lond. 

1542.  (See  Christian  Rememb.,  June,  1842.) 

675.  Manual  of  Presbilterij ;  comprising,  L  Presbyterianism,  etc., 
by  Dr.  S.  Miller;  IL  The  Character  and  Atlvantages  of  Presbyterianism 
Ascertained  by  tracts,  etc.,  by  J-  G.  Lorimer.  iSmo.  Edinb.  and  Lond. 
1842. 

1S43.      676.  7i/7>,  jr.  jT.  ;  The  Double  ^Yitne5s  of  the  Church.     i2mo.    N.  Y. 

1543.  "The  Double  Witness"  is  that  "against  Rome  on  the  one  hand, 
and  mere  Protestant  congregations  on  the  other."  These  words  are 
borrowed  from  F.  W.  Faber,  formerly  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  Esig- 
land,  now  a  priest  of  the  Oratory  in  the  Church  of  Rome. 

677.  A-lexandeVf  IF.  L,  :  Anglo-Catholicism  not  Apostolical;  being 
an  inquiry  into  the  Scriptural  authority  of  the  leading  doctrines  advocated 
in  the  Tracts  for  the  Times,  etc.  8vo.  Edinb.  1843.  This  is  pronounced 
by  Donaldson  "  the  best  reasoned  of  the  productions  that  appeared  in  the 
Tractarian  Controversy."     Hist.  Chr.  Lit.  i.  60. 

678.  Sitiyth,  Thomas:  Ecclesiastical  Republicanism;  or.  The  Re- 
publicanism, Liberality,  and  Catholicity  of  Presbytery,  in  contrast  with 
Popery  and  Prelacy.     i2mo.     Boston,  1843. 

679.  Barnes,  Albert:  An  Inquiry  into  the  Organization  and  Govern- 
ment of  the  Apostolic  Church ;  particularly  with  reference  to  the  claims  of 
Episcopacy.     i8mo.     Phila.  1843. 

680.  The  Position  of  the  Evangelical  Party  in  the  Episcopal  Church. 

l2mo.  Pp.  70.  Phila.  1844.  The  reprehensible  character  of  this  publica- 
tion, in  its  main  drift  and  tendency,  is  well  set  forth  in  the  Princeton  Review, 
vol.  xvi.,  pp.  319-24.     Among  the  grounds  of  censure  are  the  following: 

1.  The  whole  tendency  of  the  book  is  to  throw  the  influence  of  other 
denominations  against  the  interests  of  true  religion  in  the  Episcopal  Church. 

2.  The  assumption  on  which  the  whole  book  is  founded,  viz.,  that  Puseyism 
is  the  true  doctrine  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and,  consequently,  that  the 
Evangelical  party  are  in  conflict  with  their  own  doctrinal  standards  —  an 
assumption  wholly  erroneous  and  unjust.  3.  The  main  position  of  the  book 
—  that  a  form  of  prayer  is  destructive  of  true  piety  —  a  transparent  sophism. 
4.  The  change  of  the  ground  of  controversy  between  Presbytery  and  Epis- 
copacy :  for  the  claim  of  the  exclusive  validity  of  Episcopal  orders  substi- 
tuting the  charge  of  unscriptural  doctrine  and  liturgical  worship. 

62>i.  Plea  of  Presbytery.  Third  edition.  Belfast,  1843.  Discusses 
the  leading  points  of  difference  between  Presbytery  and  Episcopacy. 

682.    Whytock:  Vindication  of  Presbytery;    with  Twelve  Essays  on 
the  Church.     Edinb.  1 843. 
1844.      683.  Mcllvaine,  Chatties  Pettlt:  The  Holy  Catholic  Church;  or, 

55 


438  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

The  Communion  of  Saints,  in  the  Mystical  Body  of  Christ :  A  Sermon, 
etc.,  with  an  Appendix.  i8mo.  Phila.  1844.  Republished  in  an  enlarged 
form,  under  the  title.  The  Temple  of  God ;  or,  The  Holy  CathoHc  Church 
and  Communion  of  Saints,  in  its  Nature,  Structure,  and  Unity.  i2mo.  Phila. 
i860.  Pp.  143- 
1844.  684.  JBuelf  Samuel :  The  Apostolical  System  of  the  Church  Defended ; 
in  a  Reply  to  Dr.  Whately  on  the  Kingdom  of  Christ.     i2mo.    Phila.  1844. 

685.  Whately,  Ilichavd:  Thoughts  on  Church  Government;  being 
the  substance  of  a  Charge,  1844.     8vo.     Lond.  1844. 

686.  Arnold,  Thomas:  Fragment  on  the  Church.  8vo.  Lond.  1844. 
A  posthumous  and  unfinished  publication. 

687.  Wordsworth,  Christopher:  Theophilus  Anglicanus;  or, 
Instructions  concerning  the  Church,  and  the  Anglican  branch  of  it.  For 
the  use  of  schools,  colleges,  and  candidates  for  oi-ders.  8vo.  Lond.  1844. 
6th  ed.,  1850.  Am.  edition,  entitled  Theophilus  Americanus;  or.  Instruc- 
tion for  the  young  Student  concerning  the  Church,  and  the  American  branch 
of  it.  i2mo.  Phila.  1851.  Part  III.  is  by  the  Am.  editor,  H.  Davey 
Evans. 

688.  3Iarshall,  Tho,  W.:  Notes  on  the  Episcopal  Polity  of  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church;  with  some  account  of  the  development  of  the 
modern  religious  systems.  8vo.  Lond.  1844.  Am.  ed.  by  Dr.  Wain- 
wright,  i2mo,  N.  Y.  1844.  Not  long  after  the  appearance  of  this  volume, 
the  author  joined  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  published  the  controversial  tract 
next  named. 

689.  Development  of  Protestantism,  etc.     Lond.  1849. 

690.  Ward,  W.  G. :  The  Ideal  of  a  Christian  Church  considered  in 
comparison  with  existing  practice,  etc.  8vo.  Lond.  1844.  Rev.  in  Lond. 
Quart.,  vol.  Ixxv.  Eng.  Rev.,  vol.  ii.  A  labored  but  carelessly  written 
volume,  assailing  the  principles  and  practices  of  the  English  Church.  The 
author,  soon  after  its  publication,  joined  the  Romish  Communion. 

691.  The  Anglican  Establishment  Contrasted,  in  every  principle  of 

its  Constitution,  with  the  Church  Catholic  of  every  Age.     Pp.  143.     8vo. 
Lond. 

692.  Madge,  Thomas:  Lectures  on  certain  High  Church  Principles 
commonly  designated  by  the  terni  Puseyism.     8vo.     Lond.  1844. 

693.  King,  David:  The  Ruling  Eldership  of  the  Christian  Church. 
i2mo.     Edinb.  1844.     Am.  ed.,  i6mo,  N.  Y.  i860. 

694.  Gresley,  William:  Anglo-Catholicism;  a  short  treatise  on  the 
theory  of  the  English  Church:  with  remarks  on  its  pecuHarities ;  the  objec- 
tions of  Romanists  and  Dissenters ;  its  practical  defects  ;  its  present  position ; 
its  future  prospect;  and  the  duties  of  its  members.  Sm.  8vo.  Lond.  1844. 
A  defence  of  the  Anglo-Catholic  system,  as  originally  propounded,  and  in 
opposition  to  the  extreme  views  of  its  later  advocates. 

695.  The  I'rimitive  Church  in  its  Episcopacy.  By  the  author  of 
"  Dr.  Hookwell."      i2mo.     Lond.  1844. 

696.  MoherllJ,  George  :  The  Sayings  of  the  great  Forty  Days  be- 

56 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  439 

tween  the  Resurrection  and  Ascension,  regarded  as  the  outline  of  the  King- 
dom of  God.  8vo.  Lond.  1844.  Second  ed.,  with  an  Examination  of  Mr. 
Newman's  Theory  of  Development,  Svo,  Lond.  1846.  Marked  by  learning 
and  wealth  of  thought. 

697.  Stehhing,  Henri/  :  The  Church  and  its  Ministers,  as  represented 
in  the  Christian  writers  of  the  primitive  ages.     Svo.     Lond.  1844. 

698.  Schever,  Edltiond:  Esquisse  d'une  Thcorie  de  I'Eglise  Chre- 
tienne.     Paris,  1844. 

699.  De  I'Etat  actuel  de  I'Eglise  Reform ^e  de  France.   Paris,  1844. 

700.  Hoavdtnan,  H,  A,  :  The  Prelatical  Doctrine  of  the  Apostol- 
ical Succession  Examined ;  with  a  delineation  of  the  High-Church  System. 
Pp.  350.     i2mo.     Phila.  1844. 

701.  Windsor ,  Lloyd:  An  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  of  the  Ministerial 
Commission.     Buffalo-,  1844. 

702.  Wisner,  William:  Prelacy  and  Parity,  discussed  in  several 
Lectures ;  comprising  a  review  of  the  Rev.  L.  Windsor's  argument,  etc. 
N.  Y.  1844. 

703.  Evans f  Hugh  DaveiJ  :  Essays  to  prove  the  Validity  of  Ang- 
lican Ordinations ;  in  answer  to  the  Rt.  Rev.  Peter  Richard  Kenrick,  R.  C. 
Bishop  of  St.  Louis.     i2mo.     Bait.     1844. 

704.  Ives,  L.  S.  :  The  Apostles'  Doctrine  and  Fellowship.  Five  Ser- 
mons, etc.     Pp.  189.     N.  Y.  1844. 

705.  Miller,  Samuel  :  The  Warrant,  Nature,  and  Duties  of  the  Office 
of  Ruling  Elder  in  the  Presbyterian  Church.  A  Sermon,  etc.,  with  an  Ap- 
pendix.    i2mo.     Phila.  1844. 

.  706.  Coletnan,  Lgman:  A  Church  without  a  Bishop.  The  apos- 
tolical and  primitive  Church,  popular  in  its  government,  and  simple  in  its 
worship.  i2mo.  Boston,  1844.  New  edition,  carefully  revised,  and  adapted 
to  recent  discussions,  foiTning  a  Manual  on  Prelacy  and  Ritualism.  l2mo. 
Phila.  1869. 

707.  Drs.  Potts  and  Wainwright:  No  Church  without  a  Bishop; 
or,  the  Controversy  between  the  Rev.  Drs.  Potts  and  Wainwright.  Edited 
by  J.  M.  (James  Richmond).     8vo.     N.  York,  1844. 

708.  Hopkins,  John  Henry:  The  Novelties  which  Disturb  our 
Peace.  Four  Letters  addressed  to  the  Bishops,  Clergy,  and  Laity  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  i2mo.  Phila.  1 844.  The/rj/ of  these  Let- 
ters vindicates  the  Validity  of  Lay -baptism ;  the  second  confutes  "  the  un- 
churching dogma,"  so  called — that  Episcopacy  is  of  the  Essence  of  the 
Church ;  the  //lird  is  directed  against  the  Anglo-CathoIic  theory  of  the  Real 
Presence,  and  of  Sacerdotal  Power;  the  /ourfA  controverts  the  startling 
novelty  in  theology  that  the  dogmas  of  the  Council  of  Trent  may  be  recon- 
ciled with  sound  Catholic,  or  orthodox  and  primitive  doctrine. 

709.  Waylen,  EdlV,:  The  Novelties  which  Disturb  our  Unity.  A 
volume  puq^orting  to  be  a  polemical  reply  to  Bishop  Hopkins-  chiefly  re- 
markable for  its  coarseness  of  taste  and  style. 

57 


440  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

1844.  710.  Snodf/rasSf  IF,  D.:  Discourses  on  Apostolical  Succession. 
i2mo.     Troy,  N.  Y.,  1844. 

711.  Tyditigs,  Richard :  A  Refutation  of  the  Doctrine  of  Uninter- 
rupted Apostolic  Succession,  etc.  In  answer  to  Rev.  G.  T.  Chapman,  D.  D., 
and  others.     8vo.     Louisville,  Ky.,  1844. 

712.  JFoodSf  Leonard  :  Lectures  on  Church  Government ;  contain- 
ing Objections  to  the  Episcopal  Scheme.     i2mo.     N.  York,  1844. 

713.  Uphani,  T.  C-:  Ratio  Disciplince;  or,  The  Constitution  of  the 
Congregational  Churches  Examined,  etc.     I2mp.     Portland,  1844. 

714.  J*tiiichardf  George:  A  View  of  Congregationalism,  its  Princi- 
ples and  Doctrines,  ete:.     i2mo.     Andover,  1844. 

715.  Histoiy  of  Congregationalism,  etc.      2d  ed.,  2  vols.,  cr.  8vo, 

N.  Y.  1865-6J. 

716.  Hreckinridge,  Hobert  *!.  :  Presbyterian  Government  not  a 
Hierarchy,  but  a  Commonwealth;  and  Presbyterian  Ordination  not  a  Charm, 
but  an  Act  of  Government.  The  substance  of  two  arguments  delivered 
before  the  ^ynod  of  Philadelphia,  met  in  Baltimore,  Oct.,  1843.  i2mo. 
Phila.  1844. 

717.  The  Elder  Quest  ion.  In  Bib.  Rep.  and  Princeton  Rev.,vol.xvi. 

1845.  718.  Schafff  Philip:  The  Principle  of  Protestantism,  as  related  to 
Romanism  and  the  Present  State  of  the  Church.  Translated  from  the 
German;   with  an  Introduction  by  J.  W.  Nevin,  D.  D.    8vo.    N.  York, 

1845. 

719.  3Iarsdeilf  *T,  S.  :  The  Churchmanship  of  the  New  Testament: 
An  Inquiry,  Historical  and  Theological,  into  the  Origin  and  Progress  of 
certain  Opinions  which  now  agitate  the  Church  of  Christ.  In  Three  Parts, 
l2mo.  Lond.  1845.  The  leading  object  of  this  volume  is  to  show  that  the 
leading  errors  of  the  Tractarian  system  originate  in  a  defective  acquaintance 
with  the  Gospel  as  a  system,  and  an  entire  misapprehension  of  the  true  char- 
acter of  the  Church  of  Christ ;  a  corruption  of  Christianity  which  can  triumph 
only  on  the  ruins  of  the  Word  of  God.  The  aim  of  the  author  is  avow- 
edly of  the  highest — "to  exhibit  some  of  the  leading  pi'inciples  by  which  all 
the  great  controversies  which  agitate  the  Church  must  be  decided." 

720.  Hariugtoilf  E,  C,  :  Apostolical  Succession,  and  the  Necessity 
of  Episcopal  Ordination,  as  held  by  the  Primitive  Church,  and  maintained 
by  the  Reformers  of  the  Church  of  England.  Being  two  Sermons,  with 
copious  illustrative  notes.  8vo.  Lond.  1845.  Second  ed.,  with  large  addi- 
tions,-8vo,  Lond.  1847. 

720  a.  Manuel  du  Droit  Ecclesiastique.     4th  ed.     Paris,  1845. 

721.  Chapin,  A.  JB,:  A  View  of  the  Organization  and  Order  of  the 
Primitive  Church  as  presented  in  Scriptui'e  and  History.  i2mo.  N.  Haven, 
1845.     New  ed.,  1867. 

722.  Brichnell,  W,  S,  :  The  Judgment  of  the  Bishops  upon  Trac- 
tarian Theology.  A  complete  analytical  aj-rangement  of  the  Charges  de- 
livered by  the  Prelates  of  the  Anglican  Church  from  1837  to  1842  inclusive; 
so  far  as  they  relate  to  the  Tractarian  movement,  etc.     8vo.     Oxford,  1845. 

58 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  44I 

1845.  723-  Smt/thf  Thomas:  The  Name,  Nature,  and  Functions  of  Ruling 
Elders,  etc.     i2mo.     N.  York,  1845. 

1846.  724.  A  FuU  Catechism  of  the  Orthodox  Catholic,  Eastern  Church  ; 
being  the  Longer  Russian  Catechism.  On  the  Ninth  Article  of  the  Creed. 
In  a  volume  entitled  "  A  Harmony  of  Anglican  Doctrine  with  the  Doctrine 
of  the  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church  of  the  East,"  etc.  With  an  Appendix. 
Svo.     Aberdeen,  1846.     The  original  was  published  at  Moscow,  1839. 

725.  McNeile,  Hugh  :  The  Church  and  the  Churches ;  or,  The  Church 
of  God  in  Christ,  and  the  Churches  of  Christ  Militant  here  on  Earth.  8vo. 
Pp.  574.     Lond.  1846. 

726.  Hussellf  fToJui  Fuller:  Anglican  Ordinations  Valid;  a  refuta- 
tion of  certain  statements  in  the  second  and  third  chapters  of  "The  ValicSty 
of  Anglican  Ordinations  Examined,  by  the  Very  Rev.  P.  R.  Kenrick,  V.  G." 
Svo.     Lond.  1846. 

727.  HariugtOUf  E.  C  :  The  Succession  of  Bishops  in  the  Church 
of  England  Unbroken  ;  or.  The  Nag's  Head  Fable  refuted.  With  a  Postscript, 
etc.     Svo.     Lond.  1846.     2d  ed.,  enlarged,  1852. 

727  a.  Garrattf  Wm,  Albhi:  An  Inquiry  into  the  Scriptural  View 
of  the  Constitution  of  a  Christian  Church,  etc.     Svo.     Lond.  1846. 

728.  Stone,  John  S,:  The  Church  Universal:  a  Series  of  Discourses 
on  the  true  comprehension  of  the  Church,  as  exhibited  mainly  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  subordinately  in  the  Standards  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  etc.  Svo.  N.  York,  1S46.  A  new  edition,  entitled  The  Living 
Temple,  etc.,  Svo,  N.  Y.  1866. 

729.  7f't7i'0-/i,  IF.  Z).  ;  A  Manual  of  Church  Principles.  i2mo.  Bait. 
1846. 

730.  Allies  f  T,  IF,:  The  Church  of  England  cleared  from  the  Charge 
of  Schism,  upon  Testimonies  of  Councils  and  Fathers  of  the  first  six  cen- 
turies.    Svo.     Lond.  1846.     2d  ed.,  Oxf.  1848. 

731.  The  See  of  St.  Peter,  the  Rock  of  the  Church,  Source  of  Juris- 
diction, and  the  Centre  of  Unity.     Pp.  160.     Svo.     Lond.  1850. 

732.  Coleman,  Ll/nian:  The  Antiquities  of  the  Christian  Church. 
Svo.     N.York,  1846. 

733.  3IcKerroiVf  JToliu:  The  Office  of  the  Ruling  Elder  in  the 
Christian  Church ;  its  Divine  Authority,  Duties,  and  Responsibilities.  Svo. 
Edinb.  1846. 

1847.  734.    JBunsen,   C,  C,J,:    The  Constitution   of  the   Church   of  the  v 
Future.     A  practical  explanation  of  the  correspondence  with  the  Rt.  Hon. 
W.  E.  Gladstone  on  the  German  Church,  Episcopacy,  and  Jerusalem,  etc. 
Svo.     Lond.  1847.     Translated  from  the  German. 

735.  Stanley,  A,  JE*,:  Sermons  and  Essays  on  the  Apostolical  Age. 
Svo.     Oxford,  1847. 

736.  Thont2*SOn,  Edu\  Ilealy  :  The  Unity  of  the  Episcopate,  con- 
sidered, in  reply  to  the  work  of  the  Rev.  T.  W.  Allies,  entitled  The  Church 
of  Englan«i  cleared  from  the  Charge  of  Schism,  etc.     Lond.  1S47. 

737.  Remarks  on  Certain  Anglican  Theories  of  Unity.    Lond.  1847. 

59 


442  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

1847.  738.  The  Apostolic  Succession  Explained:  a  short  Treatise  in 
which  certain  theological  questions  of  the  day  are  calmly  examined  and 
resolved.  By  a  Priest  of  the  Order  of  Charity.  Lond.  1847.  Of  the  three 
last-named  publications,  the  first  [No.  736]  reaffirms  the  statements  of  Bel- 
larmine  respecting  the  Papal  Supremacy,  as  exhibiting  the  views  of  the 
English  adherents  of  the  Papacy :  "  Bishops  succeed  not  properly  to  the 
Apostles,  for  they  have  no  part  of  the  true  apostolic  ministry  ...  all  ordi- 
naiy  jurisdiction  of  bishops  descends  immediately  from  the  Pope ;  the  Pope 
has,  full  and  entire,  that  power  which  Christ  left  on  earth  for  the  good  of  the 
Church." 

739.  Revieiv  of  Nos.  736-738,  in  English  Review,  vol.  viii.,  pp.  354- 
399:  "The  Romish  Theory  of  Unity  Examined."     Svo.     Lond.  1847. 

740.  Landon,  E.  II. :  Tentativa  Theologica,  Episcopal  Rights  and 
Ultramontane  Usurpations.  By  Father  Antonio  Pereira  de  Figueredo, 
Priest  and  Doctor  of  Lisbon.  Translated  from  the  original  Portuguese,  with 
Notes,  etc.  8vo.  Lond.  1847.  The  original  work,  which  appeared  in 
1766,  was  condemned  by  the  Pope,  and  was  publicly  burnt  at  Rome.  It 
maintains  the  full  apostolical  power  of  every  bishop  in  his  own  diocese ;  and 
affirms  that  "  the  episcopal  jurisdiction  considered  in  itself,  that  is,  in  its  insti- 
tution, and  apart  from  any  law,  use,  or  reservation  to  the  contrary,  is  a  juris- 
diction absolute  and  unlimited  in  respect  of  each  diocese." 

1848.  741.  Argyll^  Duke  of:  Presbytery  Examined:  An  Essay,  critical 
and  historical,  on  the  ecclesiastical  histor)^  of  Scotland  since  the  Reforma- 
tion.    8vo.     Lond.  1848. 

742.  London  Quarterhi  Review :  Duke  of  Argyll.  Presbyteiy 
Examined.     Vol.  Ixxxiv.,  pp.  78-106. 

743.  Noel,  Hapfist  W,  :  An  Essay  on  the  Union  of  Church  and 
State.     Svo.     Lond.  1848.     Am.  ed.,  i2mo,  N.  Y.,  1849. 

744.  DdVidson,  Sanvuel:  The  Ecclesiastical  Polity  of  the  New 
Testament  Unfolded,  and  its  points  of  coincidence  or  disagreement  with 
prevailing  systems  indicated.     Svo.     Lond.  1848.     2d  ed.,  i2mo,  1S54. 

745.  WardlaiV,  Ilalph:  Congregational  Independency,  in  contra- 
distinction to  Episcopacy  and  Presbyterianism :  the  Church  Polity  of  the 
New  Testament.  i2mo.  Lond,  1848.  " This  treatise,"  says  the  author's 
biographer.  Dr.  Alexander,  "  contains  nothing  positively  new.  .  .  .  The 
very  clearness  and  simplicity  of  Dr.  W.'s  reasoning  only  make  it  more 
apparent  that  .  .  .  the  evidence  that  Congregationalism,  in  its  extant  form, 
is  the  Church  polity  of  the  New  Testament  is  painfully  slender."  [Life, 
p.  433.)  A  confession  remarkable  for  its  candor — a  virtue  signally  illus- 
trated in  Dr.  Wardlaw's  volume  as  compared  with  that  of  Dr.  Davidson. 
The  contrast  between  these  two  writers,  in  this  respect,  will  appear  from  a 
comparison  of  the  Eccles.  Polity,  p.  74,  with  Congreg.  Indep.,  p.  50. 

\g.      746,  mines f  Fldvel  S, :  A  Presbyterian  Clerg^mian  looking  for  the 
Church,     By  one  of  three  hundred.     i2mo,     N.  York,  1849, 

747.  Pantin,    T*  I*, :    The    Church   of  England   Apostolical   in  its 
60 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  443 

Origin,  Episcopal  in  its  Government,  and  Scriptural  in  its  Belief,  etc.   i2mo. 
Pp.  48.     Lond.  1849. 

748-  JPuS€1/f  E,  JB, :  The  Royal  Supremacy  not  an  arbitrary  Authority, 
but  limited  by  the  Laws  of  the  Church,  of  which  kings  are  members.  Part  I. 
Ancient  Precedents.     8vo.     Oxford,  1850, 

749-  JS^eivniaiif  John  H,:  Lectures  on  certain  Difficulties  felt  by 
Anglicans  in  submitting  to  the  Catholic  Church.  8vo.  Lond.  1850.  Am. 
ed.,  i2mo,  N.  Y.,  1851. 

750.  Broivne,  E.  Harold:  Exposition  of  the  XXXIX.  Articles. 
8vo.     Lond.  1850.  2  vols.     On  Articles  XIX.  and  XXIII. 

751.  Ward,  W,  G,:  The  Anglican  Establishment  Contrasted,  in 
every  principle  of  its  constitution,  with  the  Church  Catholic  of  every  age. 
8vo.     Pp.  143.     Lond.  1850. 

752.  Schuyler f  M,:  The  Ministry  and  Worship  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church.     i2mo.     Buffalo,  1S50. 

753-  WycUffe,  John:  Three  Treatises:  I.  Of  the  Church,  and  her 
Members.  II.  Of  the  Apostasy  of  the  Church.  III.  Of  Anti-Christ,  etc. 
Now  first  published  from  the  manuscript  by  J.  H.  Todd.  i2mo.  Dublin, 
1851. 

754-  Litton,  E.  A.  :  The  Church  of  Christ  in  its  Idea,  Attributes,  and 
Ministry;  with  a  particular  reference  to  the  controversy  on  the  subject 
between  Romanists  and  Protestants.  8vo.  Lond.  1851.  Am.  ed.,  8vo, 
Phila.,  1856.  As  indicated  in  the  title,  the  leading  object  of  this  work  is  to 
bring  out  the  fundamental  points  of  difference  between  the  Protestant  theory 
of  the  Church,  on  the  one  hand,  and  that  of  the  Romanists  and  Anglo-Cath- 
olics, on  the  other.  As  a  polemic  treatise  against  the  Romish  system,  it  is 
of  a  high  order  of  merit.  But  in  its  exhibition  of  the  primitive  scheme  of 
polity,  it  fails  to  develop  the  argument  for  Episcopacy  drawn  from  the  New 
Testament ;  or,  rather,  it  depreciates  that  argument  to  the  point  even  of  its 
full  surrender;  so  that  the  author  is  claimed  by  the  Presbyterians  as  substan- 
tially their  advocate. 

755.  Goode,  William  :  A  Vindication  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Church 
of  England  on  the  Validity  of  the  Orders  of  the  Scotch  and  Foreign  Non- 
Episcopal  Churches.     8vo.     Lond.  1851. 

756.  DodswortJl,  William:  Anglicanism  Considered  in  its  Results. 
i2mo.     Lond.  1 85 1. 

757.  Walcott,M.E.  C:  The  English  Ordinal :  its  Histor)-,  Validity, 
and  Catholicity;  with  an  Introduction  on  the  three  holy  Orders  of  Ministers 
in  the  Church.     8vo.     Lond.  1831. 

758.  Guer'iclie,  H.  E.  F. :  Lehrbuch  der  christlich-kirchlichen  Ar- 
chaologie.  8vo.  Leipz.  1847.  Translated  and  adapted  to  the  use  of  the 
English  Church  under  the  title  Manual  of  the  Antiquities  of  the  Church. 
l6mo,     Lond.  1851. 

759.  Harington,  E.  C:  A  Letter,  etc.,  on  the  LV,  Canon,  and  the 
Kirk  of  Scotland;  with  an  Appendix,  etc.     8vo.     Pp.  99,     Lond.  1851. 

61 


444  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

185 1.  760.  Alexander,  J.  A.:  Essays  on  the  Primitive  Churcli  Officers. 
i2mo.     N.  York,  1851. 

1852.  760  a.  Staillei/f  Ji,  JP.  :  Sermons  and  Essays  on  the  Apostolic  Age. 
Svo.     Oxf.  1852. 

761.  Nevhlf  J'   JV,  :  Cyprian:   Four  Articles  in  the  Mercersburg  Re- 
/  view.     1852. 

762.  Hare,  J,  C.  :  The  Contest  with  Rome.  8v.o.  Lond.  1852. 
This  volume  consists  mainly  of  a  body  of  Notes,  pp.  73-346,  "  especially  in 
answer  to  Dr.  Newman's  recent  Lectui'es."     Able  and  valuable. 

763.  Hunseil :  Hippolytus  and  his  Age;  or  the  Doctrine  and  Practice 
of  the  Church  of  Rome  under  Commodus  and  Alexander  Severus,  and 
Ancient  and  Modern  Christianity  and  Divinity  compared.  4  vols.  l2mo. 
Lond.  1852.    2d  ed.,  2  vols.,  8vo,  1854. 

764.  Shinieall,  R.  C. ;  The  End  of  Prelacy;  or,  A  Treatise  on  Min- 
isterial Parity,  etc     Svo.     N.  Y.  1852. 

1833.  764  a.  Gosselln,  M.  :  The  Power  of  the  Pope  during  the  Middle 
Ages;  or,  An  Historical  Inquiry  into  the  Origin  of  the  Temporal  Power  of 
the  Holy  See,  and  the  Constitutional  Laws  of  the  Middle  Ages  relating  to 
the  Deposition  of  Sovereigns.     2  vols.     Svo.     Lond.  1853. 

765.  Coleman f  Lyman :  Ancient  Christianity  Exemplified  in  the 
Private,  Domestic,  Social,  and  Civil  Life  of  the  Primitive  Christians.  Svo. 
Phila.  1853. 

766.  King,  David :  Exposition  and  Defence  of  the  Presbyterian 
Form  of  Church  Government.  In  reply  to  Episcopal  and  Independent 
writers.     iSmo.     Edinb.  1853. 

767.  Norton,  Q,  H,  :  An  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Extent  of  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church.      iSmo.     Phila.  1853. 

1854.  768.  Pretyinan,  J,  JR.:  The  Church  of  England  and  Erastianism. 
Svo.     Lond.  1854. 

76S  a.  Axyostolical  Succession  Overthrown,  and  Evangelical  Succes- 
sion Established,  etc.     By  a  Clergyman  of  the  Established  Church.     Svo. 
Lond.  1854. 
,   /     769.    IVilber force,  It.  J, :  An  Inquiry  into  the  Principles  of  Church 
'  Authority,  etc.     Lond.  1854. 

770.  Atlunson,  IF, :  The  Church :  An  Explanation  of  the  meaning 
contained  in  the  Bible.     2  vols.     Svo.     Lond.  1854. 

770  a.  Andrews,  W.  W,:  The  True  Constitution  of  the  Church  and 
its  Destination.     i2mo.     N.  York,  1854. 
'^55-       77^*  KenricJc,  F,P,:  A  Vindication  of  the  Catholic  Church;  in  a 
series  of  Letters  addressed  to  Bishop  Hopkins.     i2mo.     Bait.  1855. 

772.  Kaye,  tfohnj  Some  Account  of  the  External  Government  and 
Discipline  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  during  the  first  three  centuries.  Svo. 
Lond.  1855. 

1856.  773.   Greemvood,  T, :  Cathedra  Petri.  4  vols.  Svo.  Lond.  1856-60. 

1857.  773  a.  Piisey,  E.  JB.  :  The  Councils  of  the  Church,  from  the  Council 
of  Jerusalem,  A.  D.  51,  to  the  Council  of  Constantinople,  A.  D.  381;  chietly 

62 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    CHURCH.  445 

as  to  their  constitution,  but  also  as  to  their  objects  and  history.     8vo.     Oxf. 

iB57- 
857-      774'  Hodge,  Charles:  Essays  and  Reviews  selected  from  the  Prince-  / 
ton  Review.     8vo.     N.  Y.  1857.     Article  on  The  Church,  etc. 

858.  775.  Bartol,  C,  A,  :  Church  and  Congregation:  a  Plea  for  their  Unity. 
i2mo.     Boston,  1858. 

775  a.  Rohlnson,  Stuart:  The  Church  of  God,  as  an  essential  Ele- 
ment of  the  Gospel,  and  the  Idea,  Structure,  and  Functions  thereof.  i2mo. 
Phila.  1858. 

775  b.  Bllintf  J,  J. :  On  the  Right  Use  of  the  Early  Fathers.  8vo. 
Lond.  1858. 

859.  776.  Allien,  W.  JO.  :  The  Ancient  Church ;  its  History,  Doctrine, 
Worship,  and  Constitution,  traced  for  the  first  three  hundred  years.  8vo. 
Lond.  1859. 

776  a.  Dupanloup:  La  Souverainete  Pontificale.  2d  ed.,  Paris,  i860. 

777.  Wilson,  William:  The  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ:  a 
practical  Exposition  of  Matt,  xvi.  13,  etc.,  etc.     i2mo.     Edinb.  1859. 

778.  Dagg,  J,  L.  :  A  Manual  of  Theology.  Second  Part :  a  Treatise 
of  Church  Order.     8vo.     Charleston,  1859. 

:86o.      779.    Wilson,  W,  X).;  The  Church  Identified  by  a  Reference  to  the 

History  of  its  Origin,  Perpetuation,  and  Extension  into  the  United  States. 

i2mo.     N.  Y.  i860. 

780.  Friedberg,  JEmilillS  :  De  finium  inter  Ecclesiam  et  Civitatem 

regundorum  judicio  quid  niedii  aevi  doctores  et  leges  statuerint.  Leips.  1861. 
[862.       781.   Theiner:  Codex  Diplomaticus.     3  vols.  foL     Roma,  1862. 
[863.      782.  3Iegric7c,  Frederick:  Church:  Article  in  Smith's  Dictionary 

of  the  Bible.     Vol.  I.     8vo.     Lond.  1863. 

783.  Coxe,  A,  C:  Calendar  of  the  Holy  Catholic  and  Apostolic 
Church.     N.  York,  1 863. 

784.  Cunningham,  W.:  Discussions  on  Church  Principles:  Popish, 
Erastian,  and  Presbyterian.     8vo.     Edinb.  1863. 

785.  Historical  Theology.     2  vols.     8vo.     Edinb.   1863.    Vol.  i., 

chap.  i. 

1865.  786.  Planning,  H,  E,:  Essays  on  Religion  and  Literature,  by  vari- 
ous writers.  1st  series,  1865;  2d  series,  1867.  Exhibit  the  views  of  the 
modern  Romanists  of  the  Ultramontane  school  regarding  the  Church,  etc. 

787.  Dexter,  H.  31.:  Congregationahsm :  What  it  is;  whence  it  is; 
how  it  works ;  why  it  is  better  than  any  other  form  of  Church  government, 
and  its  consequent  demands.     8vo.     Boston,  1865.     2d  ed.,  1868. 

788.  Joyce:  The  Sword  and  the  Keys.     Lond.  1865. 

789.  Pusey,  EdlV.  B.  :  The  Church  of  England  a  Portion  of  Christ's 
One  Holy  Catholic  Church,  and  a  Means  of  restoring  Visible  Unity :  An 
Eirenicon.     8vo.     Lond.  1865 ;  N.  Y.  1866. 

1866.  790.  Coxe,  A.  C.  :  The  Criterion:  a  Means  of  Distinguishing  Truth 
from  Error  in  Questions  of  the  Times  ;  with  Four  Letters  on  the  Eirenicon 
of  Dr.  Pusev.     i2mo.     N.  Y.  1866. 

63 


446  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

1866.  791.  Coojjei',  JB.  ;  The  Free  Church  of  Ancient  Christendom.  i8mo. 
N.  D.    Lond. 

792.  Ecclesia  Dei:  The  Plan  and  Functions  of  the  Church  in  the 
Divine  Order  of  the  Universe,  and  its  Relations  with  the  World.  8vo. 
Lond.  1866. 

793.  Driimm,  «/.;  Vox  Ecclesiae;  or,  The  Doctrines  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  on  Episcopacy  and  Apostolical  Succession,  embracing  a 
refutation  of  the  work  known  as  "  Goode  on  Orders."     i2mo.    Phila.  1866. 

793  a.  Camphell,  JPefer  Colin :  The  Theory  of  Ruling  Eldership ; 
or.  The  Position  of  Lay  Ruler  in  the  Refoimed  Churches  Examined.  i2mo. 
Pp.  109.     Edinb.  and  Lond.  1866. 

1867.  794.  Harrison f  John:  Whose  are  the  Fathers?  or,  The  Teaching 
of  Certain  Anglo-Catholics,  on  the  Church  and  its  Ministry,  contraiy  alike 
to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  to  the  Fathers  of  the  first  six  centuries,  and  to  those 
of  the  Refoimed  Church  of  England.  With  a  Catena  Patrum  of  the  first 
six  centuries,  and  of  the  English  Church  of  the  latter  half  of  the  i6th  cen- 
tury.    8vo.     Lond.  1867. 

795.  Glietteej  It,  F, :  The  Papacy ;  its  Historic  Origin  and  Primitive 
Relations  with  the  Eastern  Churches.  i2mo.  N.York,  1867.  Translated 
from  the  French  :  Papaut^  Schismatique. 

796.  Ripley f  H,  tf, :  Church  Polity  :  a  Treatise  on  Christian  Churches 
and  the  Christian  Ministry.     i8mo.     Boston,  1867. 

796  a.  Luthardt,  Kahnis,  and  Urdckner:  The  Church:  its 
Origin,  its  History,  its  Present  Position.     8vo.     Edinb.  1867. 

1868.  797.  Lighffoot,  J.  B.:  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Philippians.  A 
revised  Text,  with  Introduction,  Notes,  and  Dissertations.  8vo.  Lond.  1868. 
Dissertation  I.,  The  Christian  Ministry.    Pp.  179-267. 

798.  Sannernianf  Jcunes:  The  Church  of  Christ:  A  Treatise  on 
the  Nature,  Powers,  Ordinances,  Discipline,  and  Government  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  2  vols.  8vo.  Edinb.  1868.  "This  work  is  characterized 
by  unusual  comprehensiveness,  thoroughness,  and  unity.  From  the  author's 
point  of  view  it  has  special  interest,  being  a  fresh  statement  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  the  Presbyterian  system  in  their  application  to  the  whole 
range  of  questions  discussed;  the  treatment  having  reference,  throughout, 
to  the  form  which  recent  controversies  have  assumed."  [Dr.  Ramy,in  Pref.) 

798  a.  Gallagher,  Mason:  The  Primitive  Church,  etc.  i2mo. 
N.  Y.  1868. 

799.  Tlieolilesia  f  or.  The  Organization  and  Pei-petuity,  Conflicts  and 
Triumphs  of  the  One,  Holy,  Catholic,  and  Apostolic  Church.  By  a  Presbyter 
of  the  West.     i2mo.     N.  Y.  1868. 

800.  Sumner,  Geo,  Henry:  Principles  at  Stake  :  Essays  on  Church 
Questions  of  the  Day.     8vo.     Lond.  1868. 

801.  McClintock  and  Strong:  Church:  Article  in  Cyclopaedia  of 
Biblical,  Theological,  and  Ecclesiastical  Literature.  Vol.  I.  Royal  8vo. 
1868. 

64 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  44/ 

1868.  Soi  a.  Ecce  Ecclesia  :  An  Essay  showing  the  essential  identity  of 
the  Church  in  all  Ages.     i2mo.     N.  Y.  1868. 

1869.  802.  lleliglous  llepublics:  Six  Essays  on  Congregationalism.  Lond. 
1869.  An  exposition  of  the  principles  and  practice  of  the  Independents, 
with  a  view  to  the  removal  of  prejudices  and  misapprehensions. 

803.  3laskellf  William:  The  Present  Position  of  the  High-Church 
Party  in  the  Established  Church  of  England,  considered  in  a  Review  of 
"  The  Civil  Power  in  its  Relations  to  the  Church,"  and  in  Two  Letters  on 
the  Royal  Supremacy,  and  the  Want  of  Dogmatic  Teaching  in  the  Refonned 
Church.     Lond.  1869. 

803  a.  Joyve,  J,  W. :  The  Civil  Power  in  its  Relations  to  the  Church. 
Svo.     Lond.  1869. 

804.  Garhett,  Edw.:  Voices  of  the  Church  of  England  against 
Modern  Sacerdotalism ;  being  a  Manual  of  Authorities  on  the  Nature  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  and  the  Christian  Ministry,  selected  and  arranged,  with  an 
Introduction.     Lond.  1869. 

804  a.  KeWeivell,  S.  :  The  Rights  and  Liberties  of  the  Church, 
viewed  in  relation  to  the  present  controversy.     8vo.     Lond.  1869. 

805.  HaildaUf  A,  W,  :  Apostolical  Successipn  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land.    Svo.     Lond.  1869. 

806.  tTauiiS :  The  Pope  and  the  Council.  i2mo.  Lond.  1869,  Am. 
ed.,  i2mo,  N.  Y.  1870.  Translated  from  the  German:  Der  Papst  und  das 
Concil.     Leipz.  1869. 

807.  Kelly,  W,  :  Lectures  on  the  Church  of  God.  New  ed.  i2mo. 
Lond.  1869. 

807  a.  JSirJcSf  T.  It.  :  Church  aud  State  ;  or,  National  Religion  and 
Church  Establishments  considered  with  reference  to  present  controversies. 
i2mo.     Lond.  1869. 

1870.  80S.  IVieVf  Archibalfl^  and  Maclar/an,  W,D,:  The  Church 
and  the  Age :  Essays  on  the  Principles  and  Present  Position  of  the  Anglican 
Church.     Svo.     Lond.  1870. 

809.  Reynolds f  H,  lioht, :  Ecclesia :  Church  Problems  Considered 
in  a  Series  of  Essays.     Svo.     Lond.  1870. 

810.  Ilunt'uiydoiif  W,  It.  :  The  Church-Idea.  An  Essay  towards 
Unity.     iSmo.     N.  Y.  1870. 

811.  Smith,  ltd,  Travers:  Church  Membership  on  Church  Princi- 
ples. An  Essay  on  the  Gifts  and  Functions  of  the  Christian  Society.  i2mo. 
Lond.  1S70. 

Si  I  a.  Lindsay,  Lord:  CEcumenicity,  in  relation  to  the  Church  of 
England.  Four  Letters  :  I.  On  the  Catholicity  of  the  Anglican  Church. 
II.  On  the  Claims  of  England  versus  Rome.  III.  On  the  Futility  of  At- 
tempts at  Reconciliation  with  the  Church  of  Rome.  IV.  On  the  (so  called) 
CEcumenical  Council  of  1869-70,  etc.,  etc.     Svo.     Lond.  1870. 

811  b.  Legge,  Alfred  Owen:  The  Growlh  of  the  Temporal  Power 
of  the  Papacy.  An  Historical  Review,  with  Observations  upon  the  Council 
of  the  Vatican.     i2mo.     Lond.  1S70. 

65 


448  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

1870,  811  c.  Stctnlei/f  A.  JP,:  Essays  chiefly  on  Questions  of  Church  and 
State.     8vo.     Lond.  1870. 

811  d.  Melchel,  O,  «/.  .*  The  See  of  Rome  in  the  Middle  Ages.  8vo. 
Lond.  1870. 

811  e.  Vintotlf  Francis:  A  Manual  Commentary  on  the  General 
Canon  Laws  and  the  Constitution  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States.     8vo.     N.  Y.  1870. 

812.  SchniUcUer,  S,  S,  :  The  True  Unity  of  Christ's  Church,  etc.,  etc. 
N.  Y.  1870. 

1 87 1.  812  a.  Herg etir other :  Anti- Janus;  an  Histori co-Theological  Criti- 
cism of  the  Work  entitled  *'  The  Pope  and  the  Council."  Eng.  transl., 
Dubl.  and  Lond.,  1871. 


GERMAN  WORKS.     1819  — 1871. 

1 819.      813.   CrVeiling :  Apostolischen  Christengemeinen.     Halberstadt,  18 19. 

1825.  814.  Moehlerf  John  Adam:  Die  Einheit  in  der  Kirche,  oder  das 
Princip  des  Catholicismus,  dargestellt  im  Geiste  der  Kirchenvater  der  drei 
ersten  Jahrhunderte.     8vo.     TUbing.  1825-44. 

1831.  815.  Hiillmann :  Ursprlinge  der  Kirchenverfassung  des  Mittela^lters. 
8vo.     Bonn,  1831. 

1833.  816.  Kist,  N,  C:  Uber  den  Ursprung  der  bischoflichen  Wiirde  in  der 
Christliche  Kirche,  im  Verbande  mit  der  Entstehung  und  dem  Zustande  der 
fruhesten  Christengemeinden.  Ein  Beweis  fiir  die  Echtheit  und  Wichtig- 
keit  der  Briefe  des  H.  Ignatius.     8vo.     MUnster,  1833.     From  the  Dutch. 

1836.  817.  JRothensee  :  Der  Primat  des  Papstes  in  alien  ChristHchen  Jahr- 
hunderten.     3  vols. 

1837.  818.  Itothe,  Michard:  Die  Anfange  der  ChristHchen  Kirche  und 
ihrer  Verfassung.  Ein  geschichtlicher  Versuch.  Erster  Band.  Buch  I.-IU. 
Nebst  einer  Beilage  iiber  die  Echtheit  der  Ignatianischen  Briefe.  8vo.  Pp. 
786.     Wittenberg,  1837. 

1838.  819.  Kist,  N,  C,  :  Die  Christliche  Kirche  auf  Erden,  nach  der  Lehre 
der  heiligen  Schrift  und  der  Geschichte.  8vo.  Leipz.  1838.  From  the 
Dutch. 

820.  Saurf  F,  C  :  Ueber  den  Ursprung  des  Episcopats  in  der  Christ- 
lichen  Kirche.  Priifung  der  neuestens  von  Hrn.  Dr.  Rothe  aufgestellten 
Ansicht.  Tubing,  1838.  This  is  a  critical  examination  of  Rothe's  view  of 
the  origin  and  development  of  the  Episcopal  system, 

821.  Gess:  Die  Einheit  der  Kirche  im  Sinne  Cyprians.  (In  Stud,  der 
Ev.  Geistl.  Wurt.     Stuttgardt,  1838.) 

1839.  822.  Htither,  «/.  G*:  Cyprians  Lehre  von  der  Einheit  der  Kirche. 
8vo.     Hamb.  u.  Gotha,  1839. 

823.  KleCf  F.  W.  :  Das  Recht  der  einen  allgemeinen-Kirche,  aus  dem 
in  der  heiligen  Schrift  gegebenen-Begriff  entwickelt.  2  Bde.  Magdeb. 
1839-41. 

66 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  449 

1840.       824.  JPuchta,  G,  F.  :  Einleitung  in  das  Recht  der  Kirche.     Leipzig, 
1840. 

825.  Ellendorf:  Der  Primat  der  Romischen  Papste. 

826.  3Ieyer,  M.  :  Gnmdsatze  der  Kirchenverfassung  fur  die  Protest- 
ant-Evangel. Kirche  im  Allgemeinen,  und  Anwendung  derselben  auf  die 
von  Zwingli  Reformirte  Kirche  insbesondere.     Zurich,  1840. 

827.  Stflhl,  F,  G.  :  Die  Kirchenverfassung^  nach  Lehre  und  Recht 
der  Protestanten.     Erlang.  1840,     Zweit.     Ausg.  1862. 

828.  Petersen^  A,  :  Die  Idee  der  Christlichen  Kirche.  Drei  Theile. 
8vo.     Leipz.  1839-46. 

1842.  829.  ChlebuSf  M.  :  Uel>er  das  Verhaltniss  der  Bischoflichen  Kirche 
von  England  zu  der  urspriinglichen  Apostolischen.     Leips.  1842. 

830.  UhdeUj  H.  F, :  Die  Zustiinde  der  Anglicanischen  Kirche,  mit 
besonderer  Berlicksichtigung  der  Verfassung  und  des  Cultus  dargestellt.  8vo. 
Leips.  1843.  "  The  fairest,  the  fullest,  and  the  most  accurate  account  of  the 
English  Church,  as  far  as  we  know,  that  has  yet  appeared  in  Germany." 
£n^.  Rev.,  vol.  i.  There  is  what  purports  to  be  an  English  translation  of 
this  volume :  The  Anglican  Church  of  the  Nineteenth  Centuiy ;  indicating 
her  relative  position  to  dissent  in  every  form,  and  presenting  a  clear  and 
unprejudiced  view  of  Puseyism  and  orthodoxy.     8vo.     Lond.  1844. 

1844.  831.  Thiele,  H,:  Die  Kirche  Christi  in  ihrer  Gestaltung  auf  Erden. 
Zurich,  1844. 

1845.  831a.  Lohe:  Drei  BUcher  von  der  Kirche.     1845. 

1847.  832.  DelitSScJlf  Franz:  Vier  BUcher  von  der  Kirche.     1847. 
832  a.  Vom  Haus  Gottes.     1849. 

1848.  833.  Hundeshftf/etl,  C.  B. :  Der  deutsche  Protestantismus,  seine 
Vergangenheit,  und  seine  heutigen  Lebensfragen.  Frankf.  1848.  3  Aufl., 
1850. 

1849.  834.  Nitzsch,  C.  J,  :  Ueber  die  Organization  der  Evangelischen  Ge- 
meinden.     Berlin,  1849. 

1850.  835.  Mueller,  J,:  Die  Unsichtbare  Kirche.  In  Deutsche  ZeitschriU 
der  Christi.  Wissensch,     No.  II. 

835  a.  mtschl:  Die  PIntstehung  der  alt  catholischen  Kirche.  1850. 
Neue  Aufg.,  1857. 

835  b.  Liihe:  Aphorismen  liber  neutestamentl.  Aemter.  1850. 

1 85 1.  836.  Broniel,  A,  :  Der  Grund  der  Kirche.     Grimma,  1851. 

837.  Bichter,  A^ni,  JL.:  Geschichte  der  Evangelischen  Kirchenver- 
fassung in  Deutschland.     Leipz.  1 85 1. 

838.  Lohe:  Kirche  und  Amt.     Erlang.  1 85 1. 

1852.  838  a.  Waif  her:  Die  Stimme  unsrer  Kirche  in  der  Frage  von  Kirche 
und  Amt.     1852. 

1853-  839.  Ilo/thiff,  J.  W.  F.  :  Grundsatze  Evangelischen  Lutherisch. 
Kirchenverfassung.     Erlang.  1 850.     3  Aufl.,  1 853. 

840.  SUsskilldf  K.  F.  :  Blicke  auf  die  Anfange  einer  Presbyterial- 
und  Synodalverfassung  in  der  Evangel.  Kirche,  mit  Rucksicht  auf  Geschichte 
und  Kirchenrecht.     Eisleben,  1853. 
29  67 


450  LITERATURE    OF    THE 

1853.  841.  JSaur,  F,  C. ;  Das  Christenthum  der  drei  ersten  Jahrhunderten. 

842.  KostUflf  fT.  :  Luther's  Lehre  von  der  Kirche.    Stuttg.  1853-4. 

843.  IlarlesSf  6r.  C  -4.  ;  Kirche  und  Amt  nach  Lutherischer  Lehre. 
Stuttg.  1853. 

1854.  844.  Hansen  :  Die  Lutherische  und  die  Reformirte  Kirchenlehre  von 
der  Kirche.      1854. 

845.  Kllefoth,  Th,:  Acht  Biicher  von  der  Kirche.  Schwerin,  154-55. 
845  a.  Scliavpff :  Entstehung  des  Kirchenstaats.     1854.     Eng.  transl., 

Bait.  i860. 

845  b.  Sugenheini :  Geschichte  des  Kirchenstaats.     1854. 

846.  Miliichmeier  :  Das  Dogma  von  der  sichtbaren  und  der  unsicht- 
baren  Kirche.     Getting.  1854. 

847.  Hundeshaf/en,   C.  H. :   Ueber  die  Emeuerung  des    evangel. 
Aeltesten-  und  Diaconen-Amtes.     Heidell).  1854. 

847  a.  LechleVf  G,  V, :  Geschichte  der  Presbyt.  Verfassung  seit  der 
Reformation.     Leyden,  1854. 

1855.  848.  Kostlhlf  tT.  :  Das  Wesen  der  Kirche  nach  Lehre  und  Geschichte 
des  N.  T.  1854.  Die  Catholische  Auffassung  von  der  Kirche,  in  ihrer 
ersten  Ausbildung.     In  Deutsch,  Zeitschrift.  1855-6. 

848  a.  Renter :    Abhandlung   zur   System.  Theol.  I.  Zur  Controvers. 
liber  Kirche  und  Amt.     1855. 

849.  Das  Wesen  der  Kirche.     1855. 

849  a.  Husse  :  Vereinigung  der  geistlichen  und  weltlichen  Obergewalt. 

1855. 

1856.  850,  SoJirinffer :  Die  Kirche  Christi.     Vier  Bande.     8vo.     1856. 
851.  Kohlhrilgge,  H,  F,:  Ueber  das  Amt  der  Presbyter.  Elberfeld. 

1856. 

1857.  852.  Lechler,  C-:  Neutestamentliche  Lehre  vom  heiligen  Amte. 
Stuttg.  1857. 

853.  MUckert,  L.  J,  :    Ein  Buchlein  von  der  Kirche.     8vo.     Jena, 
1857. 

854.  Schenkelf  Z>.  :  Kirche.     In  Hertzog:    Real-Encyclop.  vol.  vii,, 
pp.  560-599. 

855.  ^aiefeer,^.;  Kirchen-Verhaltniss  zum  Staat.    Ibid.,  pp.  599-607. 

856.  Kirchenverfassung.     Ibid.,  pp.  686-690. 

857.  Daniel:  Kirchenagende  im  Allgemeinen und  preussische  Kirchen- 
agende  im  Besondern.     lb,,  pp.  607-618. 

858.  Jacobson,  H.  F.:  Kirchengewalt.     Ibid.,  pp.  634-6. 

859.  Kirchengut.     lb.,  pp.  636-642. 

860.  Kirch enordnungen.     lb.,  662-5. 

861.  Kirchenstaat  (Patrimonium  Petri).  lb.,  676-81. 

862.  Bischof.  Bisthum.     Id.,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  241-48. 

863.  Gemeinde,  kirchliche.     Id.,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  790-3. 

863  a.  Freger :  Die  Geschichte  der  Lehre  vom  geistlichen  Amt,  etc. 
1857. 
863  b.    Wendt:  Zwei  Biicher  von  der  Kirche.     1859. 
68 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH.  45I 

1857.  864.  mtschl:  Die  Begriffe  sichtbare  unci  unsichtbare  Kirche.  In 
Stud,  und  Krit.     1857.     Reviewing  Munchmeier. 

1858.  864  a.  Krausold:  Amt  und  Gemeinde.     1858. 

1861.  865.  DollingeVf  Joh,  Jos,  Ign,:  Kirche  und  Kirchen,  Papstthum 
und  Kirchenstaat.     Munclien,  1861.     Transl.,  1863. 

1862.  866.  HarnacJCf  Th,:  Die  Kirche;  ihr  Amt,  ihr  Regiment.  Grund- 
legende  Satze  mit  durchgehender  Bezugnahme  auf  die  symbolischen 
BUcher  der  Lutherischen  Kirche.     Niirnb.  1862. 

867.  Schenhelf  JD.  :  Die  kirchliche  Frage,  und  ihre  politische  Losung 
im  Zusammenhange  mit  den  nationalen  Bestrebungen,  und  mit  Beziehung 
auf  die  neuesten  Schriften  J.  J.  von  Dollinger's  und  von  Kettelers.  Elberf. 
1862. 
[864.  868.  Amen:  Grundbestimmungen  der evangelischen  Kirchenverfassung. 
Leipz.  1864. 

869.  JLIirenSf  K,  L,:  Das  Amt  der  Schlussel.     Hanover,  1864. 
[865.       870.  Kuper:  Das  Priestertheilung  des  alten  Bundes.     1865. 
[869.      871.  tfanus:  Der  Papst  und  das  Concil.     Leipz.  1869.     Eng.  transl., 

l2mo,  Lond.  1869. 
[870.      872.  JPichleVf  A.,:   Die  wahren   Hindernisse  und  die  Grundbeding- 
ungen  einer  durchgreifenden  Reform  der  katholischen  Kirche,  zunachst  in 
Deutschland  erortert,     Leipzig,  1870. 

873.   Otto,    IVilliatli:    Evangelische  Practische   Theologie.     2  vols. 
Vol.  IL  Of  the  Doctrine  of  Church  Order.    A  complete  view  of  the  subject. 

69 


INDEX. 


Abrogation  of    Papal   Supremacy  in 

England,  157. 
Absolution,  Cranmer  on,  170. 
Accommodation,  principle  of,  366. 
Admonition  to  Parliament,  202. 
Aerius,  222, 
Alexandria,  origin  of  episcopate  at,  74; 

presbyterial  ordination  at,  80,  81. 
Almainus,  on  the  fallibility  of  the  Pope, 

125  ;  on  the  infallibility  of  Councils,  ib. 
American  Episcopate,  the,  345. 
Andrews,  Bishop,  281. 
Angels  of  churches,  235,  236. 
Anglican   Church,   157;    Confession  of, 

159- 
Anglo-Catholicism,  distinctive  principles 

of,  357. 
Apology  of  the   Augsburg  Confession, 

138;    Barclay's,   300;    Jewel's,   179; 

defence  of,  182. 
Apostles,  successors  of  the,  237. 
Apostolical    Constitutions,    48;    on    the 

episcopate,  ib.  60. 
Apostolicity  of  the  Church,  31,  34,  46; 

Romish  note  of  the  Church,  189. 
Apostolic  commission,  I>aud  on,  276. 
Apostolic   succession,    Bilson   on,  241 ; 

Laud  on,  277;  Law  on,  341 ;  Anglo- 

Catholic  view  of,  358. 
Aquinas  on  papal  infallibility,  1 10. 
Archbishops,  95,  96, 
Arnold's    theory    of    the    Church    and 

State,  336. 
Articles,  the  XIIL,  161 ;  the  XLIL,  162, 

163;  the  XL  of  1559,  179. 
Attributes  of  the  Church,  27,  28. 
Augsburg  Confession,  136;  the  Variata, 

137  ;  on  Church  order,  ib. ;  papal  con- 
futation of,  ib. 
Augustine,  63 ;  on  the  maternity  of  the 

Church,  64 ;  unity,  65  ;  holiness,  66, 

69;  his  distinction  between  in  and  of 

the  Church,  68. 


Augustinian  and  Protestant  view  com- 
pared, 70. 

Bacon,  Lord,  on  Church  government, 
269. 

Baillie,  his  character  of  John  Robinson, 
262;  on  Independency,  263. 

Bancroft,  his  Sermon  at  Paul's  Cross, 
220;  exceptions  to,  by  Knollys,  221  ; 
defence  of,  222 ;  review  of,  by  Ray- 
nolds,  ib.;  his  Survey,  231;  on  lay 
eldership,  ib. 

Baptism,  lay,  Tertullian  on,  38;  heret- 
ical, Firmilian  on,  59;  schismatical, 
Cyprian  on,  55,  56. 

Baptismal  symbol,  48. 

Barclay's  Apology,  300. 

Baronius,  208. 

Basle,  Council  of,  113. 

Baur,  quoted,  66. 

Baxter,  his  reply  to  Stillingfleet,  315. 

Belgic  Confession,  150. 

Bellarmine,  Disputations,  208;  his  defi- 
nition of  the  Church,  ib. ;  notes  of, 
209 ;  on  papal  infallibility,  ib. ;  the 
great  expounder  of  Roman  doctrine, 
213. 

Beza  on  lay  eldership,  232. 

Bilson,  his  interpretation  of  Jerome,  76; 
his  Perpetual  Government,  239 ;  on 
presbytery,  240 ;  on  apostolic  succes- 
sion, 241. 

Biographia  Britannica,  215. 

Bishop  of  l)ishops,  39;  universal,  94. 

Bishop,  office  of,  defined,  by  Hpoker, 
249;  by  Chillingworth,  287. 

Bishops  at  large,  249. 

Bishop  and  presbyter,  one  order,  75, 165, 
167,  192,  223, 

Bishops,  equality  of,  75. 

Blondel,  on  the  ruling  eldership,  297, 

Bonner,  168. 

Bradford,  173. 

453 


^54 


INDEX, 


Dreckinridge,  R.  J.,  on  lay   eldership, 

353- 
Broad  Church,  361. 
Brownists,  214. 

liuel,  his  reply  to  Whately,  362. 
IjuII,  the  papal,  Una?n  Saiictam,  1 1 2. 
Bunsen,  his  theory  of  the  Church,  338, 

379- 
Burnet's  Exposition  condemned,  320, 
Butler,  W.  A.,  on  Church  principles,  364. 

Calderwood,  Altar  of  Damascus,  265. 

Calvin,  of  the  Church,  151 ;  of  belief 
in,  152;  of  the  ministry,  153;  of  the 
grades  of,  154;  of  lay  eldership,  296, 

Campbell,  Geo.,  an  advocate  of  Inde- 
pendency, 354;  his  betrayal  of  trust, 
355  ;  Bp.  Skinner  on,  ib. 

Campbell,  Colin,  on  lay  eldership,  353. 

Canons,  collections  of,  107 ;  of  the 
Church  of  England,  258. 

Cartwright,  202,  234. 

Catechism,  Cranmer's,  1 70;  Greek,  196; 
Heidelberg,  151 ;  Nowell's,  179,  182; 
Roman,  186. 

Catena  Martyrum,  172. 

Catholic  Church,  23. 

Catholicity,  primary  import  of,  27;  a 
note  of  the  Church,  189. 

Chalcedon,  Council  of,  xxviii.  canon 
of,  87. 

Chillingworth  on  Episcopacy,  287. 

Chrysostom  on  Episcopacy,  80. 

Church,  the,  apostolicity  of,  31,  34,  46; 
catholicity  of,  23,  27,  189,  200;  de- 
finition of,  19,  23,  30,  45  ;  exclusive- 
ness  of,  19,  30,  44,  45,  50,  61,  63,  185, 
199;  holiness  of,  46,  58,  66,  67,  189; 
indefectibility  of,  no,  199;  infallibility 
of,  118,  199;  ministers  of,  95,  154; 
notes  of,  Protestant,  137,  138,  150, 
151,  162,  173,174,184,258;  Romish, 
188,  209;  powers  of,  55,  121 ;  rela- 
tion of,  to  the  State,  92,  loi,  in,  121, 
123,  140, 142,  144,  242,  246,  294,308, 
?,2>o,2>2>A,ZZ^,3Zl,ZZ^;  unity  of,  see 
Unity. 

Church,  the  depositary  of  grace,  30;  an 
article  of  faith,  139, 150,  152,  196,  208, 
209,  219;  the  invisible,  218,  254,266, 
297;  the  visible,  162,  174,  183;  mili- 
tant, 130,  186;  sleeping,  129;  tri- 
umphant, 129,  186. 

Churches,  non-episcopal,  orders  of,  140, 
154,  228,250,  251,  255,256,264,268, 
274,  284,  290,  299,  310,  348,  349. 

Clemangis,  130. 


Clemens  Alexandrinus,  his  definition  of 
the  Church,  44;  of  its  unity,  145. 

Clemens  Romanus,  definition,  19;  ex- 
clusiveness,  ib. ;  unity,  20;  ministry, 
ib.;  clergy  and  laity,  21 ;  episcopacy, 
22. 

Clementine  Homilies,  47  ;  recognitions, 
ib. 

Clergy  and  laity,  21,  38. 

Coleridge,  his  theory  of  Church  and 
State,  334. 

Collegial  system,  144. 

Communion  of  Saints,  72 ;  King's  com- 
ment on,  ib. ;  Romish  view  of,  190. 

Confession  of  Augsburg,  136 ;  Anglican, 
150;  Belgic,  ib. ;  Helvetic,  148;  Sax- 
on, 149. 

Confirmation,  presbyteral,  256. 

Confutation,  papal,  of  the  Augustana,  1 37. 

Congregational  Independency,  263. 

Constance,  Council  of,  113;  affirms  the 
supremacy  of  councils,  ib. 

Constantinople,  Council  of,  canon  iii.  of, 
87. 

Constitutions,  Apostolical,  48. 

Convocation,  rights  of,  317;  of  Canter- 
bury, 257;  canons  of,  258;  proceed- 
ings of  (1700),  320. 

Councils,  general,  above  the  Pope,  119; 
infallibility  of,  124. 

Corpus  Juris  Canonici,  106,  note. 

Cranmer,  on  the  function  of  bishops,  167 ; 
on  orders,  169;  power  of  the  keys, 
170. 

Cyprian,  on  the  unity  of  the  Church,  50; 
the  episcopate,  52  ;  Peter's  chair,  53; 
headship  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  54  ; 
primacy  of  Peter,  55;  powers  of  the 
Church,  ib. ;  the  priesthood,  56. 

Cyprianic  theory,  27,  51,  53;  defect  of, 
57;  triumph  of,  58;  notes,  61,  62. 

Davenant,  Bishop,  his  definition  of  the 
Church,  against  Bellarmine,  265  ;  on 
the  invisible  Church,  266;  on  orders, 
267  ;  presbyteral  ordination,  268. 

Decretals,  the  Pseudo-Isidorian,  98. 

Decretists  and  Decretalists,  107,  note. 

Delitzsch,  373. 

De  Wette,  379. 

Dionysius  Exiguus,  84. 

Discipline,  a  note  of  the  Church,  163, 
184. 

Divine  Right,  203,  206,  207,  215,  245, 
272,  278,  284,  309;  four  pleas  for,  310, 
342. 

Divisions  of  the  History,  17. 


INDEX. 


455 


Donatistic  theory  of  the  holiness  of  the 
Church,  66. 

Ebrard,  379. 

Ecclesia  in  Episcopo,  51. 

Eldership,  lay,  231,  232,  296,  etc.     See 

Lay  eldership. 
Ellicott,  Bishop,  quoted,  239. 
England,  Church  of,  157. 
Epaphroditus,  304, 
Epiphanius,  223. 

Episcopacy,  22,  24,  30,  47,  48,  73. 
Episcopal  system,  the,  in  the  Lutheran 

Church,  141 ;  in  the  Church  of  Rome, 

114,  1 16,  note. 
Episcopus  Universalis,  94. 
I  Erastianism,  294;    in   the  Westminster 

Assembly,  295. 
Eutychius  of  Alexandria,  81. 

Facundus,   on   the   utility  of    councils, 

Febronius,  115. 

Field,  of  the  Church,  253;  definition 
of,  254;  notes  of,  255;  on  ordination 
by  presbyters,  256. 

Fitrmilian,  at  one  with  Cyprian,  59; 
condemns  Stephen,  Bishop  of  Rome, 
ib. ;  note,  62. 

Florence,  Council  of,  125  ;  defines  pa- 
pal supremacy,  126. 

Friends'  doctrine  of  the  Church,  301. 

Fulke,  237. 

Gallicanism,  115. 

Gelasius,  93. 

General  councils,  81 ;  authority  of,  82 ; 

utility  of,  83 ;  canons  of,  ib. 
Germany,    Church    questions    in,    367; 

Puseyism,  375. 
Gerson,  John,  118;  asserts  the  Church's 

infallibility,  ib. 
Gieseler,  quoted,  124. 
Gladstone,  his  theoiy  of  the  Church  and 

State,  337. 
Goch,  John  of,   130 ;    on  the   Church's 

maternity,  131 ;  sacerdotal  life,  ib. 
Gratiani  Decretum,  99;  note,  107. 
Greek  Church,  196;  peculiar  privileges 

of,  199. 
Gregory  the  Great,  94. 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  on  councils,  83. 
Gregory  VIL,  advanced  claims  of,  ICX3; 

Dictates  of,  ib. ;  note,  106. 

Hagenbach,  quoted,  66. 

Hall,  Bishop,  his  Episcopacy  by  divine 


right,  272;  revised  by  Laud,  274;  on 
Jus  (iivinufn,  278. 

Hallam,  quoted,  244. 

Hammond,  302;  his  Dissertations,  ib. ; 
Annotations,  303. 

Harbingers  of  the  Reformation,  127, 128, 
129,  130,  132. 

Hardwick,  quoted,  note,  106,  158,  160. 

Harmony  of  Protestant  Confessions,  148. 

Hase,  378. 

Headship  of  the  Church,  54,  55,  86,93, 
99,  102,  104,  105,  126,  129,  149,  161, 
163,  183;  Roman  doctrine  of  the,  188; 
Greek  doctrine,  197. 

Heidelberg  Catechism,  151. 

Helvetic  Confession,  148. 

Hengstenberg,  374. 

Hierarchy,  degrees  of  the,  95. 

High  Church  and  Low  Church,  322. 

Hoadly,  Bishop,  his  interpretation  of 
Jei'ome,  79. 

Hofling,  quoted,  142. 

Holiness  of  the  Church,  27,  46,  58 ;  Do- 
natistic view  of,  66  ;  Catholic  view  of, 
ib.,and67;  Protestant  view,  182;  Ro- 
manist view,  189;  ofthe  Greek  Church, 
198. 

Homilies,  the,  quoted,  162. 

Hontheim,  Nicholas  von,  115. 

Hooker,  57 ;  his  interpretation  of  Jerome, 
77;  \i\s  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  2^2;  his 
elevated  tone,  244;  his  distinction  be- 
tween the  Church  mystical  and  visible, 
245 ;  his  theory  of  Church  and  State, 
246;  of  episcopacy,  249;  of  presby- 
terial  ordination,  250 ;  Keble's  gloss 
corrected,  252. 

Hooper,  174. 

Howe,  John,  his  answer  to  Stillingfleet, 

315- 

Hugo  of  St.  Victor,  106. 

Hunt,  quoted,  289,  303. 

Huss,  ofthe  visible  headship,  129  ;  three- 
fold form,  315. 

Ignatian  theory,  23;  note,  29. 

Imposition  of  hands,  Calvin  on,  155. 

Indefectibility  of  the  Church,  no,  199; 
of  faith  in  Peter's  chair,  108. 

Independency,  260,  261. 

Infallibility  of  the  Church,  118;  of  coun- 
cils, 124,  125;  of  the  Pope,  asserted, 
108,  no;  denied,  109,  125,  135. 

Innocent  HI.,  advanced  claims  of,  104. 

Institution  of  a  Christian  Man,  158. 

Invisible  Church,  254. 

Invocation  of  saints,  198. 


456 


INDEX. 


Iien?eus,  30;  on  the  oneness  and  the 
unity  of  the  Church,  ib. ;  apostolicity 
of  the  Church  of  Rome,  32  ;  primacy 
of,  ib. ;  note,  39. 

Isidore  of  Seville,  on  degrees  in  the 
hierarchy,  95. 

Jacobson,  quoted,  107,  144,  146. 

Jerome,  73;  on  the  origin  of  episco- 
pacy, 74;  equality  of  bishops,^  75  ;  the 
identity  of  bishop  and  presbyter,  ib. 

Jewel,  his  Apology,  179;  defence  of, 
182. 

John  Scholasticus,  84. 

Jus  divinum,  206,  221,  etc.  See  Divine 
Right. 

Justin  Martyr,  on  unity,  42  ;  universal 
priesthood,  ib.  ;  Church  officers,  43 ; 
order  of  Sunday  service,  ib. 

Kahnis,  374. 

Keble,  quoted,  227,  229,  242,  243,  251, 
252;  corrected,  229,  252. 

Keys,  power  of  the,  137,  170. 

King,  on  "  the  Communion  of  Saints," 
72;  his  "Inquiry,"  323;  answered, 
326. 

Kissing  the  foot,  note,  106. 

Knollys,  Sir  F.,  his  exceptions  to  Whit- 
gift  on  episcopacy,  206;  to  Bancroft's 
semion,  221. 

Lactantius,  61. 

Laity  and  clergy,  21,  38. 

Latimer,  172. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  his  revision  of  Hall 
on  episcopacy,  274 ;  exposition  of 
Matt,  xxviii.  20,  276;  on  apostolical 
succession,  277. 

Law,  W.,  341  ;  on  an  invisible  Church, 
ib. ;  on  succession,  ib. ;  on  divine 
right,  342. 

Lay  eldership,  Bancroft  on,  231  ;  Blon- 
del  on,  297  ;  Beza  on,  232  ;  Breckin- 
ridge on,  352  ;  Calvin's  view  of,  296  ; 
rejected  by  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly, ib. ;  Campbell  on,  353;  Miller 
on,  351;  Vitringa  on,  297;  Wilson 
on,  350;  theory  of,  untenable,  354. 

Leo  I.,  86;  asserts  papal  supremacy,  ib. ; 
grounds  of  the  claim,  88;  on  the  re- 
lation of  the  Pope  to  other  bishops,  9 1 ; 
of  the  Church  to  the  State,  92. 

Leslie,  339 ;  on  episcopacy,  340. 

Lohe,  373. 

Luther,  statements  of,  147. 


Manichaean  view,  66. 

Martensen,  379. 

Mason,  Frs.,  on  Anglican  orders,  282; 
genuineness  of,  ib. ;  on  divine  right, 
284 ;  presbyteral  ordination,  ib. 

Matthias  of  Janow,  128. 

Maurice,  quoted,  334. 

Melanchthon,  his  Loci  Theologici,  139; 
affirms  the  Church's  visibility,  ib. ; 
denies  its  invisibility,  340. 

Metropolitans,  96. 

Miller,  351. 

Milman,  quoted,  99.    ' 

Milton,  his  part  in  the  Puritan  contro- 
versy, 285  ;   quoted,  ib. 

Ministry,  orders  in  the,  164,  167,  192. 

Mohler,  on  the  unity  of  the  Church,  367. 

Montanistic  theory,  57. 

Mornay,  Du  Plessis,  207,  291. 

Munchmeyer,  374. 

Nationally,  the,  334. 
Neander,  quoted,  40,  58,  66,  note,  106. 
Necessary  Doctrine,  etc.,  the,  160. 
Necessity,  the  plea  of.  Field  on,  256 ; 

Hooker   on,  251 ;    Saravia   on,  228; 

Taylor  on,  290. 
Neo-Lutheranism,  375. 
New  Jerusalem,  Church  of  the,  343. 
Nicholas  de  Clemangis,  130. 
Nicholas  of  Cusa,  113;  quoted,  124. 
Notes  of  the  Church,  Protestant,    137, 

138,  150,  151,  162,  173,  174,  184,  258; 

Roman,  188,  209;  Independent,  264. 
Novatianist  theory,  58. 
Nowell's  Catechism,  182. 

O'Brien,  Bishop,  quoted,  364. 

CEcumenical  councils,  81  ;  Augustine's 
theory  of,  82 ;  Vincent  of  Lerins',  ib. ; 
utility  of,  83;  canons  of,  84. 

Oneness  of  the  Church,  19,  30,  44,  46, 
50,  59,  61,  63. 

Optatus  of  Milevis,  on  the  headship  of 
Peter,  60;  in  agreement  with  Cyprian, 
61. 

Orders,  a  sacrament,  in  the  Greek 
Church,  201 ;  in  the  Roman  Church, 
191 ;  greater  and  minor,  192;  minis- 
ter of,  193;  effects  of,  ib. ;  canons  of 
Trent  on,  194. 

Ordinal,  the  Anglican,  (1549-1552,)  164, 
167;  reconstruction  of,  305. 

Ordination  by  presbyters,  76,  81  ;  Sara- 
via on,  228;  Hooker  on,  251;  Field 
on,  256. 


INDEX 


457 


Origen,  on  the  oneness,  apostolicity,  and 

holiness   of  the    Church,  46. 
O'erall,  Bishop,  Convocation-Book,  260. 
Owen,  his  reply  to  Stillingfleet,  314. 

Papa,  title  of,  93. 

Papal  aggressions  in  England,  158. 

Papal  infallibility,  108;  plenitude  of 
power,  III;  prerogatives,  106. 

Papal  system,  92,  103. 

Paris,  university  of,  II4. 

Patriarchs,  96. 

Pelagian  view  of  the  Church,  65. 

Peter,  St.,  his  episcopate  at  Rome,  53, 
216;  primacy  of,  Cyprian  on,  55  ;  Op- 
tatus  on,  60;  Augustine  on,  65;  Leo 
I.  on,  85,  88;  Gelasius  on,  93  ;  Greg- 
ory I.  on,  94;  Pseudo-Isidore  on,  99; 
Cusanus  on,  124. 

Pfafif,  145. 

Philpot,  176. 

Pius  IV.,  Creed  of,  186. 

Pope,  title  of,  93  ;  unique,  102  ;  primacy 
^^^y  55»  85;  supremacy  of,  86,  93,  99, 
loi,  104;  vicar  of  Christ,  104;  the 
source  of  all  law,  105. 

Powers  of  the  Church,  Cyprian  on,  55. 

Priesthood,  the  Christian,  56;  degrees 
in,  192  ;  functions  of,  ib. ;  twofold,  ib.; 
internal  and  external,  192. 

Priesthood  of  all  believers,  37,  42,  135, 

192,  33^- 
Primacy  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome.     See 

Pope. 
Primacy  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  32,  54, 

85. 
Primacy  of  jurisdiction,  note,   106;    of 

honor,  note,  107. 
Princeton  Review,  quoted,  352. 
Pseudo-Isidoriana,  98  ;  quoted,  ib. 
Puttendorf,  on  the  CoUegial  System,  143, 

145. 
Puritan  controversy,  the,  202  ;  leading 

points  of,  203. 

Quakers'  doctrine  of  the  Church,  300. 
Querimonia  Ecclesiae,  230. 

Randolph,  Bishop,  quoted,  176. 

Raynolds,  John,  215;  ©n  St.  Peter's 
episcopate  at  Rome,  216;  six  conclu- 
sions, 217;  quoted,  235. 

Recognitions  of  Clement,  47. 

Reconstruction  of  the  English  Ordinal, 

305- 
Reformation,  harbingers  of  the,  127. 


Relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State,  92, 
loi.  III,  121, 141,  142,  144,  242,  246, 
294,  etc.     See  Church. 

Revision  of  the  Liturgy,  318. 

Ridley,  173. 

Robertson,  quoted,  92. 

Robinson,  John,  262;  on  Church  gov- 
ernment, 263, 

Rome,  Church  of,  primacy  of,  32,  54,  85. 

Rolhe,  22,  367 ;  on  Mdhler's  Einheit, 
etc.,  ib. ;  his  theory  of  the  Church, 
369 ;  of  the  origin  of  episcopacy,  37 1  ; 
quoted,  22,  23,  28,  59,  64,  65,  69,  70. 

Saints,  invocation  of,  198. 

Saravia,  226;  on  episcopacy,  ib. ;  on 
divine  right,  227  ;  on  presbyteral  or- 
dination, 228;  Keble's  misconstruc- 
tion of,  229. 

Saxon  Confession,  149. 

Schafif,  quoted,  note,  28. 

Scheibel,  373. 

Schenkel,  quoted,  369,  373,  375,  380. 

vSchleieiTnacher,  375;  his  theory  of  the 
Church,  ib. 

Sclater,  his  reply  to  King,  326. 

Selden,  John,  295. 

Sextus,  Decretalium  Liber,  note,  107. 

Sherlock,  261  ;  opposes  liturgical  revi- 
sion, 319. 

Skinner,  Bishop,  his  vindication  of  epis- 
copacy, against  Campbell,  355. 

Smectymnuus,  279,  on  the  ruling  elder- 
ship, 296,  297. 

"  Spiritual  Despotism,"  Taylor's,  363. 

Stahl,  his  theory  of  the  Church,  373. 

Stephani,  142. 

Stillingfleet,  308;  on  divine  right,  309; 
mischief  of  separation,  313;  Unreason- 
ableness of  Separation,  315. 

Succession,  apostolical,  241,  etc.  See 
Apostolic  Succession. 

Succession  of  doctrine,  Tertullian  on,  35. 

Supremacy,  papal,  86,  93,  99,  1 01,  104; 
royal,  142,  163, 

Survey,  Bancroft's,  of  the  Puritan  Dis- 
cipline, 231. 

Sutcliffe,  229. 

Swedenborg,  343 ;  of  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem, ib. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  289;  of  episcopacy,  ib. ; 

plea  of  necessity,  290 ;  — ,  Isaac,  362 ; 

on  episcopacy,  363. 
Tenison,  advocates    liturgical    revision, 

320. 
Territorial  system,  142. 


458 


INDEX. 


Tertullian,  34;  of  apostolicity,  ib.  ;  uni- 
versal priesthood,  37 ;  the  Bishop  of 
Rome,  39. 

Thirlwall,  Bishop,  on  High  Anglicanism, 

359-   . 

Thomasius,  153. 

Tichonius,  70. 

Tracts  for  the  Times,  357 ;  distinctive 
jirinciples  of,  ib. ;  on  apostolic  succes- 
sion, 358;  in  connection  with  the 
sacraments,  358. 

Trent,  Council  of,  186. 

Tyndale,  172. 

Unam  Sanctam,  the  Bull,  112. 

Unity  of  the  Church,  20,  23,  27,  30,  42, 

45,  51,  60,  65,  188,  197,  325  ;  Mbhler 

on,  367. 
Universal  Bishop,  94. 
Usher,  Archbishop,  281,  286,  287,  302; 

his  letter  to  Hammond,  303. 

Valentinian,  law  of,  86. 

Vincent  of  Lerins,  82. 

Visible  Church,  the,  162,  174,  184,245. 

Visible  head  of  the  Church,  86,  127, 129, 

^33,  149.  159.  180,  188. 
Vitringa,  297. 
Vogel,  quoted,  71. 


Warburton,  330;  his  theory  of  the  rela- 
tion of  the  Church  to  the  State,  330. 

Wesel,  John  of,  132  ;  distinguishes  be- 
tween the  Church  visible  and  inv;si- 
ble,  133. 

Wessel,  John,  on  the  communion  of 
saints,  133;  on  unity,  134. 

Westminster  Assembly,  Erastianism  in 
the,  295  ;  ruling  eldership  in,  296. 

Westminster  Confession,  statements  of, 
297. 

Whately,  Archbishop,  his  Kingdom  of 
Christ,  361. 

White,  William,  346  ;  his  scheme  of  or- 
ganization, ib, ;  on  divine  right,  348 ; 
his  moderate  views,  349. 

Whitgift,his  answer  to  Cartwright,  202; 
censured  by  Knollys,  206. 

Wilberforce,  Bishop,  quoted,  346. 

Wilson,  B.,  347. 

Wilson,  J.  P.,  on  lay  eldership,  350. 

Wolff,  374. 

Wordsworth,  C,  quoted,  283. 

Wycliffe,  his  definition  of  the  Church, 
127  ;  on  the  visible  headship,  ib. ;  or- 
ders in  the  ministry,  128, 

Zwingli,  155,  156. 


INDEX 

TO  THE  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


Abbott,  174. 

Acton,  646. 

Ahrens,  869, 

Ainsworth,  147,465. 

Alexander,  W.  L.,  677;  J.  A.,  760. 

Alison,  120, 

Allies,  730,  731. 

Almainus,  52. 

Alsop,  337. 

Amen,  868. 

Ames,  144,  171,  172,  179. 

Anderson,  456. 

Andrews,  770  a. 

Apollonii,  233,  234. 

Apostolical  Succession,  738,  768  a. 

Argyll,  741. 

Arnold,  588,  686. 

Atkinson,  770. 

Augustinus,  8,  9,  10,  II. 

Authority,  Church,  145. 

Ay  ton,  481. 

Baillie,  241,  246. 
Bancroft,  99,  132,  133. 
Bangs,  558,  598. 
Bannerman,  798. 
Barnes,  578,  580,  679,  680. 
Barrett,  338. 
Barrington,  569. 
I      Barrow,  329,  363. 

Barrow  es,  121,  122,  123. 

Bartol,  775. 

Baur,  820,  841. 

Baxter,  326, 327,  333,334,  335,  348,  356, 

386. 
Becanus,  156. 

Bellarmine,  85,  168  a,  362, 
Bennet,  405,  436,  437,  443. 
Berington  and  Kirk,  548. 
Bernard,  R.,  146,  152,  294;  J.  L.,  670. 


Beveridge,  649. 

Beverley,  616,  617. 

Beza,  59,  86,  87,  112,  113,  130,  131. 

Bilson,  134. 

Bingham,  440. 

Birks,  807  a. 

Blackburne,  507. 

Blacksmith,  504  a. 

Blomfield,  674. 

Blondel,  178,213,  242,  243,  258. 

Blunt,  J.  J.,  185,  775  b. 

Boardman,  700. 

Boehmer,  453  a,  482-486,  502  a. 

Bohringer,  850. 

Boileau,  305. 

Bossuet,  364,  481  a. 

Bowden,  519  a,  542,  544. 

Boyd,  658,  659,  660. 

Boyse,  392,  453. 

Bradshaw,  143,  165. 

Bramhall,  262,  287,  290,  291,  292. 

Breckinridge,  716. 

Brett,  431,  432,  454,  460,  464. 

Bricknell,  722. 

Bridges,  73,  95. 

Bristed,  562. 

Brokesby,  450. 

Bromel,  836. 

Brown,  R.,  89;  T.,  487,  502;  J.,  523, 

532,  668. 
Browne,  750. 
Bucer,  58. 
Buddeus,  423. 
Buel,  684. 
Bull,  424. 
Bunsen,  734,  763. 
Burgess,  173. 
Burnet,  321,  323. 

Burscough,  387,  406,  407,  408,  417,  418. 
Butler,  W.  A.,  672. 


71 


459 


460 


INDEX    TO    THE    BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


Cajetan,  51. 

Calamy,  265,  416. 

Calder,  420,  421,  422,  452. 

Calderwood,  168,  170. 

Calvin,  56. 

Cambridge,  438. 

Campbell,  \V.,   519;    G.,   525;    P.  C. 

793  a. 
Canne,  186  a. 
Canons  of  Trent,  63. 
Cartwright,  75,  77,  80,  81,  82. 
Catechism,  Greek,  724. 
Catechismus  Romanus,  64. 
Cave,  316,  352. 
Cawood,  584. 
Chambre,  499. 
Champney,  160. 
Chapin,  721. 
Chapman,  571,  572. 
Charles  I.,  255,  266. 
Chauncy,  514. 
Chemnitz,  65. 
Chillingworth,  236. 
Chlebus,  829. 
Church  Discipline,  97. 
Churchman  Armed,  550. 
Churchman's  Remembrancer,  536. 
Clarkson,  330,  342,  373. 
Claude,  350. 
Claudius  Fontejus,  305. 
Clemangis,  32,  35. 
Clement  of  Rome,  2,  3. 
Coleman,  706,  732,  765. 
Coleridge,  575. 
Collinges,  286. 
Colton,  597. 
Conder,  555  a. 
Constitutiones  Apostolicae,  6. 
Cooke,  573,  574. 
Cooper,  T.,  107;  — ,  B.,  791. 
Cosin,  141. 
Cotton,  226,  228. 
Countercuffe,  no  a. 
Courayer,  475,  476. 
Coxe,  783,  790. 
Crakanthorp,  175. 
Croft,  317. 

Cunningham,  784,  785. 
Cusanus,  42. 
Cyprian,  4. 

Dagg,  778. 
Daille',  182. 
Daniel,  857. 
Danovius,  515. 
Daubeny,  521,  528, 
Davenant,  186. 


Davidson,  144. 

Declaration,  94. 

Decretales  Pseudo-Isidorianae,  21. 

De  Dominis,  166. 

Defence,  etc.,  78,  96. 

Delitzsch,  832,  832  a. 

De  Maistre,  556,  559. 

Demonstration,  etc.,  98. 

Development,  etc.,  640. 

Dexter,  787. 

Dialogue,  93. 

Dionysius  Exiguus,  14. 

Discipline,  97. 

Divine  Institution,  etc.,  473. 

Dodd,  479. 

Dodsworth,  599,  600,  601,  756. 


72 


Dodwell,  325,  328,  __   . 

380,381. 
DcSllinger,  865. 
Drumm,  793. 
Dumoulin,  302. 
Dunlop,  468. 
Dupanloup,  776  a. 
Dupin,  359,  435  a. 
Du  PJessis  Mornay,  84. 
Durel,  298,  299. 

Ecce  Ecclesia,  801  a. 
Ecclesia  Dei,  792. 
Edwards,  212,  235,  500. 
Elder  Question,  717. 
Ellendorf,  825. 
Elrington,  546,  555. 
English  Review,  739. 
Episcopacy,  495. 
Epitome,  105. 
Erasmus,  49. 
Erastus,  in. 
Essays,  661  a. 
Evans,  586,  703. 

Ferguson,  388. 
Feme,  251,  273,  281. 
Field,  Rd.,  140. 
Field  and  Wilcocks,  74. 
Fletcher,  568. 
Forbes,  181. 

Forrester,  357,  409,  425. 
Friedberg,  780. 
Fulke,  88,  92. 
Fulhvood,  513. 

Gabler,  533. 
Gallagher,  798  a. 
Garbett,  804. 
Garratt,  727  a. 
Gauden,  274. 


358,  378,  379. 


INDEX    TO    THE    BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


461 


Gerbertus,  23. 

Gerhard,  180. 

Gerson,  36,  zh  38,  39»  4©,  41. 

Gess,  821. 

Gillespie,  177,  1S8,  215,  248. 

Gladstone,  611,  645. 


Goch,  43,  44. 

Innocent  HI.,  27. 

Goode,  755. 

Isidonis  de  Isolanis,  153. 

Gosselin,  764  a. 

Isidorus  Hispalensis,  19. 

Gratianus,  26. 

Ives,  704. 

Greenwood,  773. 

Gregory  I.,  17. 

Jackson,  176,  498. 

Gregory  VIL,  25, 

Jacob,  124,  125,  126,  127. 

Greiling,  557,  813. 

Jacobson,  858-863. 

Gresley,  694. 

Jameson,  404,  419,451. 

Greville,  210. 

Janus,  806,  871. 

Grey,  480,  490-493,  497- 

Jewel,  60,  66,  67. 

Grotius,  259. 

Joannes  de  Turrecremata,  41  a 

Gruner,  505. 

Johannes  Antiochenus,  15. 

Guericke,  758. 

Tones,  526,  653. 

Guettee,  795. 

Joyce,  788,  803  a. 

Gunning,  320. 

Jus  Divinum,  244,  275,  276. 

Haddan,  805. 

Kaye,  772. 

Hales,  221. 

Kelly,  807. 

Hall,  A,,  520; — ,  Bp.,  128,  190,  191, 

Kelsall,  455. 

192,  193,  194;  — ,R.,552. 

Kenrick,  608,  664,  771. 

Hammond,  267,  268,  269,  270,  271,  277, 

Kettlewell,  804  a. 

278. 

Killen,  776. 

Hansen,  844. 

King,D.,693,766;-,P.,383;- 

Harding,  61,  62,  68. 

Kist,  816,  819. 

Hare,  762. 

Klee,  823. 

Harington,  720,  727,  759. 

Kliefoth,  845. 

Harless,  843. 

KnoUys,  149. 

Harnack,  866. 

Kohlbriigge,  851. 
Kostlin,  842,  848. 

Harris,  157. 

Harrison,  794. 

Krausold,  864  a. 

Hasse,  849  a. 

Kuper,  870. 

Hauber,  855,  856. 

Henderson,  214. 

Landon,  740. 

Henke,  516. 

Lathbury,  606. 

Hergenrother,  812  a. 

Lauder,  433,  434. 

Hey,  564. 

Laurence,  44/I-449. 

Heylin,  224,  225,  285. 

Law,  462. 

Hickes,  430,  439. 

Lawn  Sleeve  Rent,  211. 

Hickman,  300,  301. 

Leaming,  506. 

Hildebrand,  296. 

Lechler,  847  a,  852. 

Hoadly,  411-415. 

Legge,  8ii  b. 

Hobbes,  272. 

Leighton,  390. 

Hodge,  774. 

LeoL,  I3;-IX.,24. 

Hcifling,  839. 

Le  Quien,  477,  478. 

Hooker,  Rd.,  135, 257, 295; — ,Thos.,  252. 

Leslie,  474,  650. 

Hopkins,  595,  596,  708. 

Lewgar,  303. 

Home,  590. 

Lewis,  463. 

How,  554. 

Lex  Talionis,  320. 

Howe,  336. 

Lightfoot,  J.  B.,  797. 

HUlmann,  815. 

Lindsay,  81 1  a. 

Hundeshagen,  833,  847. 
Huntington,  8iO. 
Huss,  30. 
Huther,  822. 


-,W.,39i. 


73 


46: 


INDEX    TO    THE    BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


Litton,  754. 

Lloyd,  355.    ^      ,     ^  ^ 
Lohe,  831  a,  835  b,  838. 
London  Petition,  219. 
London  Quarterly,  742. 
Luthardt,  796  a. 

Maclagan,  808. 

Madge,  692. 

Madox,  488,  489. 

Manning,  671. 

Manual  of  Presbytery,  675. 

Manuel  du  Droit  Ecclesiastique,  720  a. 

Marca,  I>e,  303  a. 

Marsden,  719. 

Marsh,  551. 

Marshall,  688, 689. 

Martin  Marprelate,  104-110  a. 

Marvell,  313,  3^5^  3^9- 

Maskell,  803. 

Mason,  F.,  159;  —  J.  M.,  537,  538,  540, 

553. 
Mastricht,  457. 

Mather,  R.,  240;  — ,  S.,  496,  496  a. 
Matthias  of  Janow,  29  a. 
Maurice,  H.,  347,  384;  —,  F.  D.,  607. 
Maxwell,  189,  245, 
McClintock  and  Strong,  801. 
McCrie,  535,  560. 
Mcllvaine,  683. 
McKerrow,  733. 
McNeile,  655,  725. 
Melanchthon,  55. 
Mestrezat,  261. 
Meyer,  826. 
Me'yrick,  782. 
Milbourne,  389. 

Miller,  541,  543,  576,  592,  647,  705. 
Milman,  641. 
Milner,  547. 
Milton,  204-208. 
Mines,  746. 

Mitchell,  J.,  609; — ,P.,  545. 
Moberly,  696. 
Mocket,  354. 
Moehler,  566,  585,  814. 
Morinus,  177,  282,  283. 
Morton,  142,  155,  308. 
Mueller,  835. 
MUnchmeier,  846. 

Naked  Truth,  318,321. 

Nettelbladt,  518. 

Nevin,  761. 

Newman,  669,  749. 

Nicholls,  429. 

Nicholas  Von  Hontheim,  504  b. 


Nitzsch,  594,  834. 
Noel,  743. 
Norton,  767. 
Nowell,  70. 

Oberthur,  554  a. 

O'Brien,  667. 

Onderdonk,  577,  579,  581-583. 

Onus  Ecclesiae,  54. 

Optatus,  7. 

Ordinal,  Anglican,  57. 

Otto,  873. 

Overall,  382. 

Overton,  527. 

Owen,  297,  310,  332,  341,  342,  370,  393. 

Palmer,  610,  643,  654. 

Pantin,  747. 

Park,  377. 

Parker,  R.,  163;— ,S.,309,3ii, 312,314, 

353- 
Patrick,  652. 
Patrum  Opera,  i. 
Pearson,  289,  365-368. 
Penry,  103,  15 1. 
Perceval,  605,  615,  644. 
Perkins,  164. 
Perrone,  673. 
Petavius,  216,  217. 
Petersen,  828. 
Pfaff,  466,  467. 
Photius,  22. 
Pichler,  872. 
Pi  thou,  135  a. 
Planck,  529. 
Polycarp,  2. 
Potter,  435. 

Potts  and  Wainwright,  707. 
Powell,  614. 
Preger,  683  a. 

Presbytery,  363,  6i2,  613,  681. 
Pretyman,  768. 
Prideaux,  372,  459. 
Primitive  Church,  695. 
Pruen,  595. 
Puchta,  824. 
Puffendorf,  361. 
Punchard,  714,  715. 
Puritan  Discipline  Tracts,  104-1 10. 
Pusey,  642,  748,  773  a,  789. 

Ravenscroft,  567. 

Raynolds,  90,  91,  100,  136,  137. 

Reasons,  Dissenters',  256. 

Reichel,  811  d. 

Republics,  Religious,  802. 

Renter,  848  a,  849, 


74 


INDEX    TO    THE     BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


463 


Reynolds,  809. 

Richter,  8^7. 

Riddle,  618. 

Ripley,  796. 

Ritschl,  835  a,  864. 

Robinson,  B.,  441,  442;— J.,  153,  154; 

—  S.,  775  a. 
Rogers,  470,  471,  472. 
Rose,  570. 
Roskovany,  591. 
Rothe,8i8. 
Rothensee,  817. 
Rovenius,  306. 
RUckert,  853. 

Rule,  339,  374,  375»  376,  396,397,  398. 
Russell,  726. 

Rutherford,  231,  237,  238,  249,  253. 
Rutherforth,  508,  509-512. 

Sage,  394,  395,410. 

Salmasius,  218,  239. 

Salmeron,  158. 

Sanders,  69,  71. 

Sanderson,  293,  304,  651. 

Saravia,  114,  114  a,  115,  116,  1 17. 

Saybrook,  438. 

Say  well,  349,  371. 

Schaff,  718. 

Scharpff,  845  a. 

Schenkel,  854,  867. 

Scherer,  698,  699. 

Scholliner,  503. 

Schuyler,  752. 

Sclater,  461. 

Scrivener,  184,  307. 

Seaman,  250. 

Selden,  220. 

Sewell,  638,  639. 

Sherlock,  344,  345. 

Shimeall,  764. 

Sinclair,  587. 

Skinner,  530,  531. 

Smectymnuus,  195,  196. 

Smith,  Rd.,  167,  280,  811. 

Smyth,  J.,  148 ;  — ,  T.,  662,  663,  678,  723. 

Snodgrass,  710. 

Some,  loi,  102. 

.Spotswoode,  169. 

Stahl,  827. 

Stanihurst,  162, 

Stanley,  735,  760  a,  811  b. 

Stapleton,  72. 

Stebbing,  697. 

Stephanus,  155  a. 

Stillingfleet,  288,  331,  340. 

Stone,  728. 

Sugenheim,  845  b. 


Sumner,  800. 

Susskind,  840. 

Sutcliffe,  118,  119,  138,  139. 

Swedenborg,  504. 

Taylor,  J.,  593 ;  — ,  Bishop,  223,  247. 

Theiner,  781. 

Theoklesia,  799. 

Thiele,83i. 

Thomassin,  385. 

Thomson,  736,  737. 

Thorndike,  209,  222,  260,  264. 

Tindal,  426,  428. 

Tossanus,  183. 

Tracts,  197-202;  619-637. 

Travers,  83. 

Trent,  Canons,  62. 

Turretine,  369. 

Ty dings,  711. 

Uhden,  830. 
Upham,  713. 
Usher,  161,  203,  232,  284. 

Vail,  666. 

Van  Espen,  410  a. 

Vincentius  Lerinensis,  I2. 

Vinton,  811  e. 

Vitringa,  399, 400. 

Voetius,  322, 

Voice  of  the  Church,  648. 

Walcott,  757. 

Walo  Messalinus,  218. 

Walther,  838  a. 

Warburton,  494. 

Ward,  T.,  469;— ,W.  G.,  690,  691,  751, 

Wardlaw,  656,  657,  745. 

Waterland,  455. 

Watts,  501. 

Waylen,  709. 

Way  of  Churches,  254. 

Wendt,  863  b. 

Wesel,  45,  46. 

Wessel,  47,  48. 

Whately,  661,  685. 

White,  J.,  150; — ,  Bishop,  517,549. 

Whitgift,  76,  79. 

Whytock,  522,  682. 

Wier,  108. 

Wilberforce,  769. 

Wilks,  561. 

Williams,  227,  229,  230, 

Wilson,  J.,  563;—,}.  P.,  589;—,  W. 

777; — ,W.  D.,  729,  780. 
Windsor,  701, 
Wise,  458. 


75 


464 


INDEX    TO    THE    BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


Wiseman,  602,  603,  604. 
Wisner,  702. 
Wood,  279. 
Woods,  712. 
Wordsworth,  687. 
Wotton,  427. 


Wright,  no. 

Wycliffe,  28,  29,  665,  753. 


Zachariae,  520  a. 
Ziegler,  324,  360,  524. 
Zimmermannj  346. 


76 


THE   END. 


DATE  DUE 


GAYLORD 


